Los Angeles Lakers: Danny Green’s Rudy Gobert statement now more important
By Ronald Agers
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard, Danny Green, really provided knowledge and advice on real-life concerning the pandemic and Rudy Gobert. Green spoke up for Gobert when the hiatus started. Now that the real effects have started, its time for a reminder.
With the Los Angeles Lakers season paused, we have been able to take a deep dive into some things going on.
There’s this phrase called 15 minutes of fame. Many people try to catch it. All that is needed is one event and a person’s identity that can be tied to it forever. As we all know, the internet lasts forever.
This will be a daily lesson that Rudy Gobert will be reminded of for the rest of his life. He’ll forever be linked as “Patient Zero” touching every microphone and various pieces of media equipment after his interview session about 24 hours before he was reported sick.
Then the panic started and the daily effects go on and on for who knows long.
After Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, the NBA’s tentative plans to salvage the season without fans in arenas quickly shifted to an official (Which means for now!) one-month season suspension.
How serious was this? The announcement was done during a nationally televised game between the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.
Now that’s a Jeopardy question for the future. A $2,000 question at that.
Since that night, other basketball players (some unnamed) and other staff members of other teams around the NBA now are quarantined with the virus.
The list does have some superstars which doesn’t make Gobert’s antics look any better.
- Christian Wood of the Detroit Pistons.
- Two unnamed players from the Los Angeles Lakers
- Marcus Smart from the Boston Celtics
- Three unnamed members of the Philadelphia 76ers organization
- Four players from the Brooklyn Nets including Kevin Durant
- One unnamed member of the Denver Nuggets organization
- The most egregious NBA player has been Rudy Gobert’s teammate, Donovan Mitchell
As of this writing, these are the 14 confirmed cases from seven teams.
Rest assured Gobert will not get the same sympathy that Donovan Mitchell and the rest of the list above will get because how careless (Some would say reckless) Gobert was leading up to his diagnosis.
Adrian Wojnarowski breaks down the level of Gobert’s activity.
Fairly or unfairly, with any incident that happens to this magnitude, someone will get the blame. Rudy Gobert will have to live with that distinction for a while. This conversation on ESPN, while it did not maliciously attack Gobert, many will anyway.
It’s going to take some of Rudy’s peers to help change the narrative going forward. Danny Green was one of those that came out publicly to defend Rudy Gobert. He talked about it in an interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report.
"“I feel like people are blaming him for a lot of things when obviously he was a little careless at times but who’s to say that’s necessarily the reason why that’s happened? He probably should have been more, more careful, but it’s not all his fault. Mind you, you got look at the positive of things: This was gonna happen to him or somebody else. Somebody in the NBA was gonna catch and give us a wake up call. I think it was needed, I think it was necessary for us — not just the basketball world, but for the rest of the world to take it seriously, the severity of it … “Obviously the carelessness of it, I don’t think he should be blamed or bashed as much as he is — I mean, it could happen to anybody. Obviously they’re showing clips — they can find clips of anything from any time of him being a little careless. But I’m sure a lot of people — not just him and guys in, throughout the league — are still living their lives the way they should, and that’s just every day, the same way.”"
The NBA does share some of Danny Green’s feelings as they did not fine or suspend Gobert for his actions according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
While Danny Green said that the Gobert controversy is a blessing in disguise, that was less than two weeks ago. Now that the consequences are starting to shape the NBA and others, will people follow Danny Green’s lead? Lake Show Life tries to figure it out in a special report.
Let’s start with “Patient Zero”, Rudy Gobert.