I don’t even think this is a conspiracy, but I honestly believe that there are probably hundreds of thousands of Americans who would, at this very moment, test positive for coronavirus. The issue is that A) there aren’t enough tests to check and B) those people don’t realize they have the virus because their symptoms are so mild. I think that’s why it’s a good thing that so many events are being canceled, because people feel fine (or only mildly ill) and they want to go on with life and then they’re carriers infecting other people. All of which to say, I’m not going to yell at this poor basketball douche for touching journalists’ microphones. Rudy Gobert did that a few days ago. Turns out, he’s now tested positive for the virus and he’s one of the big reasons why the NBA suspended their season.
Rudy Gobert thought it would be funny to touch everything during this press conference.
Karma didn't think it was funny.
Rudy has now tested positive for coronavirus and the NBA has suspended the season.
Don't be a Rudy.pic.twitter.com/99Yo0POGI4
— Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) March 12, 2020
Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert appears to have brushed off the coronavirus pandemic just days before he tested positive for COVID-19. While meeting in an interview room, instead of a locker room, as part of the league’s response to the outbreak, Gobert, 27, made a point to touch reporters’ microphones and recorders in an exaggerated manner during a pregame interview on Monday, seemingly a joke at the league’s cautiousness.
In a video that surfaced on social media, Gobert can be seen getting up from his seat after an interview. As he begins to leave the room, the athlete turns around to wipe his hands on the mouthpiece of several microphones attached to a podium before leaving the room.
“As part of the Jazz’s COVID-19 response, shootaround availability was done in the ZBBC media room today rather than on the court. As Rudy Gobert got finished discussing the situation, he stood up, leaned over and made it a point to touch every mic and recorder in front of him,” Salt Lake Tribune‘s Eric Walden reported.
On Wednesday, the NBA suspended the remainder of the season after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for coronavirus. “The NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminary tested positive for COVID-19. The test was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of tonight’s game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena,” the NBA said in a statement. “The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice. The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Gobert, who the Utah Jazz listed as “questionable” due to illness right before Wednesday’s game, was identified by the Associated Press as the player who tested positive for COVID-19.
I mean, yeah, it was a douche thing to do. But also: he touched all of those microphones and maybe THAT is how HE got it? Everyone is like “he’s the carrier, he did a bad thing!” But maybe all of that touching is how he got it. Which is my larger point: be responsible, take precautions, take care of yourselves, 100%. But also don’t stress about who gave what to whom.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
No need to pile on him but man what a dumb thing to do. Inconsiderate.
I get not panicking…but people need to at least have some common sense and decency. Its flu season too and we should all be more aware
I’ll yell at him and anyone else who is trying to make a joke out of this very serious illness. Ya’ll — stop worrying if people are overreacting by stocking up and staying home, and stop making light of COVID-19. It’s not funny and the less seriously we take it, the more difficult it will be to contain.
Hope he gets well soon.
Yup! No pass. It’s not just his personal actions, it’s the attitude he “spread” to viewers and fans. He might well be fine, but what about a grandma, an uncle with a heart condition, and any other vulnerable populations?
exactly, not at all cool…
Nah, I’m still going to yell at him. We’re all members of a society and we’re responsible for not just ourselves, but each other. If you are blatantly disregarding public health officials and putting other people in danger for giggles, then you deserve the public backlash.
Uhh…Rudy is French… 🤣
A good friend of my husband’s works for the Utah Jazz and another for the Boston Celtics and we spent Saturday with them. I have two small children so this is upsetting to say The least.
I don’t think he intended to get anyone sick, but he was intentionally disregarding public health instructions because he didn’t take them seriously and thought it was funny. People not taking social distancing and heightened hygiene seriously is part of how this crap will spread imo. So I do blame him for not behaving responsibly and modeling that irresponsible behavior as something funny to others. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him personally, but he should feel bad about his behavior and I hope the public censure will convince others not to do such stupid, irresponsible things!
I mean – yeah, maybe that’s how he caught it. But at the end of the day, this 27 year old douchebag thought it’d be ‘funny’ to make THAT kind of joke?
I’d cut him way more slack if he had just been making idiotic comments about it, for sure. It’d still be tacky, but at least the risk increase is only small in comparison to what he did and really only increased because it might encourage other people might take a cavalier approach to safety.
But the fact that he went around touching surfaces that people need to literally put near their mouth while everyone is telling you not to be super careful about touching your face and washing your hands? I think that’s deserving of at least SOME blow back.
Funny that the ones making light of it end up exposed or confirmed to be infected.
Sorry, he doesn’t get a pass. That was a stupid, childish, ARROGANT thing to do. It doesn’t matter if he was the carrier or if he picked it up from the microphones.
Bullshit like this is what helps pandemics happen and spread – because someone has the arrogance to believe that they’re untouchable and and because of that, they have the right to be dismissive of what is happening, like they have the power to decide whether or not it will affect them.
So now the NBA is closed down and this clown and all the other NBA players will survive just fine on their bloated salaries. Is this moron going to step up and volunteer money to help and of the hourly folks who keep their arenas clean, serve food and drink, help direct people to their seats who are now all out of work because of this and who don’t have millions of dollars to fall back on?
What a jackass.
+1
+2
U mean he learnt nothing from what is happening in China, Korea, Iran and then Italy? Please…. There is a saying here from where I am from, ‘if you are illiterate, get yourself a TV at least’.
Making light about this virus is as stupid as pretending to be a terrorist at an airport. And I thought the Orange Fart was the only one that stupid.
depends on the timing of that video to the test yesterday. he wouldnt test positive immediately. it has an incubation period.
Yup! If he tested positive yesterday and the video was a few days ago, then he was already infected. It’s a stupid move and it’s arrogant.
I almost slapped a dude sneezing on his (winter) gloves on the bus this morning and it took me a lot of efforts not to yell at a student who was wearing a N95 on another bus, removing it to talk to his friend and putting it back on his mouth but not his nose: he’s lucky I’m not grading him because I would fail him right on the spot (we’re all part of the Faculty of Medicine, he should know better). These things make me really angry: it’s so easy to be considerate and reduce risks of contamination
Um no, this guy does not get a pass and neither does that a-hole in Belgium who was caught on camera licking his hands and rubbing them all over a pole on the train.
Saw that video and it was gross. Seriously disturbing.
Unnecessary and stupid,and now he has it ,which I don’t mean that he got it from touching microphones,but maybe learn a lesson dude,it’s a serious situation even if he finds it amusing.
Entitled,immature behavior.
Privileged jerk. Athletes know if they have medical needs they don’t have to stand in line. They will be the first in line to get attention.
NO PASS. The idea is to take precautions, and he deliberately flouted it like a childish jerk. And even if he got infected from doing it, he then exposed so many others. Eff him.
Someone on Twitter summed it up nicely for me, “Ah, I see the NBA has their own Matt Gaetz.”
He shouldn’t have done what he did. Whether he got it or gave it, it wasn’t funny and it was stupid. People are DYING.
Sadly a lot of people are selfish and don’t realize that this pandemic is not all about them. It’s not just old people who die, younger people and children can have immune issues and health problems. Everybody needs to just buck up and do what needs to get done, make sacrifices and ride this thing out.
No pass from me. He acted like a douche. He’s young, healthy, and rich so of course he’ll be fine, but he doesn’t know other people’s health history. They could be immuno-compromised or could come into contact with old or immunocomproised people later.
Like seriously, if I get it, I most likely will be fine. But I don’t live in a bubble, so I take precautions for the vulnerable people around me.
As we are about to hit a very bad patch now is not the time for humor it’s serious.
As a person with Ra I feel like all the oh only the old & sick makes me a throw away person. It’s not a great feeling. I’ve read in Italy as they were a little less foolish than we are with not testing, they are now in the awesome position to only treat people they think will survive(sarcasm). I can see that happening here. This administration does not care about us, the orange idiot mocked disabled people while campaigning.
However we are not taking it serious, yes it may be mild for some, if you’ve have asthma, have recently in the last few years as a young person had pneumonia or if you have any other breathing issues you are at high risk this attacks the respiratory system requiring intubation & that will forever change your health young & healthy or not. Also the country can only intubate so many as this requires equipment we have only so many of & staff to run it that are trained-not just anyone.
The arrogance with which some people are brushing this off will come with a large portion of karma I’m afraid.
Nah, yell at him. He also made a point of touching his teammates and their things. One of them tested positive. He deserves all the crap being thrown at him.
On one hand I want to yell at him but on the other, US virus messaging has been a mess and that’s on Murdoch/fox/trump/republicans & silicon billionaires and a whole lot of f*douches.
I read some articles about covid19 & it seems (we’ll only know more in hindsight tho, early days research) that mortality may be double rates in men than women. That appears to be due to both estrogen & culture. So not only older rather than younger, preexisting or bad health but also diff on gender. Maybe partly because men may be more cavalier about really washing hands and they may be in public more etc. Interesting anyway in light of these boneheaded actions of Rudy. Not to be complacent – all society suffers under an global economic & medical crisis! Yikes
Yeah no, he deserves to be yelled at for disregarding health concerns. It doesn’t matter where he got it from, he joked about it and touch everything in sight like a jackass and more than likely infected other people who could potentially infect other people and so on. He’s an idiot and deserves the lashing he’s probably getting from the general public.
Good point.