1 year later, Curry looks back at uncertainty, shutdown
“I was kind of all the over the place, in terms of getting educated about what COVID19 really was, and if I had it.”
Stephen Curry
There’s a reason why the NBA’s most influential players, including Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, weren’t really excited about being in Atlanta on Sunday for the league’s madeforTV, moneygrab of an AllStar Game.
Almost a year after the NBA was the first professional league to shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, the players remember the fear and anticipation that haunted the days leading up to Commissioner Adam Silver’s decision to halt play.
“I was kind of all the over the place, in terms of getting educated about what COVID19 really was, and if I had it and could get tested for it,” Curry said Sunday, hours before he competed in the 3point contest and AllStar Game and four days before the oneyear anniversary of the shutdown. “Then, meanwhile, the league was kind of in flux, in terms of no fans. We were all trying to figure out what that was going to look like.
“I remember being at home watching some other games and hearing about what was going on in OKC. From there, everything just seemed to be moving a million miles an hour, in terms of updates and getting questions answered about whether we were going to be playing.”
Curry was at home on March 11, 2020 — when Silver brought the NBA to a standstill and prompted other sports leagues to do the same — because the Warriors’ point guard had “flulike symptoms.”
Less than a week earlier, Curry had returned from a fourmonth absence because of a broken hand and had posted 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds against Toronto. He then missed the March 7 game against Philadelphia and the March 10 game against the Clippers as NBA franchises scrambled to understand what the World Health Organization labeled a pandemic on March 11.
The Warriors were planning to play Brooklyn on March 12 without fans in Chase Center, when the pandemic arrived on the NBA’s doorstep. A day before Kevin Durant made his return to the Bay Area, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus.
After the starting lineups for the Jazz and Thunder had been introduced in Oklahoma City, and with the players milling around the court in confusion about why the game wasn’t starting, the publicaddress announcer said: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the game tonight has been postponed. You are all safe. Take your time in leaving the arena tonight and do so in an orderly fashion.”
Less than an hour later, the NBA suspended the season. In the same hour, thenPresident Donald Trump spoke from the Oval Office, saying: “The virus will not have a chance against us.”
Curry was watching it unfold from home, worried what it would mean for his family, his team, and still wondering about his own flulike symptoms.
He had tried to educate himself on the virus, but the information wasn’t readily available just yet. And, sports — maybe even society — hadn’t before gone through something exactly like this.
“Obviously, it was unprecedented,” Curry said. “There was nothing like it, nothing like that moment. It is wild that it’s been a year and everything our society has been through — even outside of NBA circles.”
The NBA has handled the pandemic well, by most accounts, becoming a leader among sports leagues in dealing with protocol, testing and safety. The NBA also has joined the WNBA at the forefront of socialjustice issues that have accompanied the pandemic during the past year.
But the problems haven’t gone away. The league announced Sunday morning that Philadelphia AllStars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons couldn’t play in the marquee event because they had contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus before traveling to Atlanta.
Instead of joining fellow players in ripping the league for having an AllStar Game in the first place, Curry turned his nonbreak of an AllStar “break” into a positive by using the platform to continue to fight voter suppression.
“We’ve got to continue to be educated and continue to understand what’s going on in our world in real time,” Curry said. “We’ve got to align ourselves with the experts, who are doing this work on a daily basis.”
Curry has gotten to know Stacey Abrams, a Georgia politician who has become synonymous with voting accessibility and turnout.
A flurry of legislation was initiated late last month to restrict voting, but President Biden announced an executive order this weekend that directs federal agencies to take steps toward promoting voting access.
“It’s about fighting voter suppression 365/24/7, not just as you get close to an election,” Curry said. Abrams “has been a huge voice and inspiration for how we can stay part of the conversation and lean on those who are in the community and doing the work. We can continue to raise awareness, fundraise, whatever the case is.
“We can make this a yearlong thing, and not something that just happens in an election season.”