The NBA All-Star Game was played on Sunday night, and the biggest concern was the contraction of COVID-19 among players, coaches and officials. The good news is the event didn’t turn into a super-spreader of the virus as zero players, coaches and officials tested positive after the event, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. There were no on-court infections and at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and everyone was tested three times, including pre-game (Wojnarowski first reported post-game).
This news comes after players showed concern about having an all-star game during a pandemic. LeBron James was the most outspoken of the players against playing the game, stating, “Coming into this season, we were told that we were not having an All-Star Game, so we’d have a nice little break. Five days [in March] from the 5th through the 10th, an opportunity for me to kind of recalibrate for the second half of the season. My teammates as well. Some of the guys in the league.”
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Players, coaches and officials COVID test results all returned negative from All-Star Game on Sunday, league spokesman tells ESPN. No on-court infections in Atlanta. Everyone was tested three times in Atlanta, including post-game last night.
โ Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 8, 2021
Shortly before the all-star game, James doubled down on his comments. “Obviously I love our league. I love the game of basketball at the highest level and doing what I love to do,” he said. “I just think under these circumstances with what we’re going through still with the pandemic and everything with the season, I just thought we could’ve looked at it a little bit differently. But that’s out of my hands. I can only control what I can control.”
Despite no players testing positive for COVID-19, there were two players who were sent home due to contact tracing. On Sunday, the NBA announced that Joel Embid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers came in contract with someone who tested positive of the coronavirus.
“Obviously something like that happening is something we all thought could possibly happen,” James said. “I hate the fact that Joel and Ben would not be able to play today because of that. Best wishes to them obviously, even though they’re not the ones that tested positive, but with all the contact tracing and all that mess. But we’re here.”
