This is a tough time for everybody right now, and I just thought it was really nice to see Cleveland Cavaliers big man Larry Nance Jr. thanking the “heroes” at the Cleveland Clinic in relation to so many caregivers.
As we all are well-aware of at this point, the novel coronavirus pandemic is something that has had a profound impact across the globe. In terms of a basketball perspective, the first player/member of NBA personnel to test positive for COVID-19 was Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and following that diagnosis, the NBA suspended its 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers and other teams, and it’s on hiatus until further notice.
As far as recent updates on other NBA players/team personnel that tested positive for COVID-19/when the season could potentially resume, you can view those here.
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At this juncture, though, player and team safety is the number one focus for the league, along with fan safety, and in this time, that’s obviously a no-brainer.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit home to so many people, including the players that have been reported as testing positive for it thus far following Gobert.
To recap, of those we know, that’s been Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, the Detroit Pistons’ Christian Wood, who fortunately is “fully recovered,” per his agent Adam Pensack (and h/t Detroit Free Press correspondent Dana Gauruder), the Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets’ Marcus Smart. Furthermore, Wood is the first known player to be cleared from the novel coronavirus, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
No players/personnel on the Cavs have reportedly shown any symptoms, nor have they been tested, for reference.
Moreover, it’s been really awesome to see players on the Cavaliers step up in a huge way to help those affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Kevin Love donated $100,000 through his fund to help compensate Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse employees/game event staff that were affected by the NBA’s season suspension, which seemingly started quite a trend around the NBA among players for their arenas’ event staff.
It was good to see Cavs owner Dan Gilbert commit to compensating RMF employees/game event staff as if the remaining Cavs games were to be played as scheduled. Additionally, it was impressive to hear that his real estate company based in Detroit, Bedrock, is waiving its “rent, expenses, and parking fees for restaurants and retail units” that’d be considered small businesses, h/t Cavaliers Nation’s Brad Sullivan and as was emphasized by Bedrock CEO Matt Mullen.
At any rate, in this unprecedented time where most are social distancing to limit their possibility of contracting the virus, the people on the front lines in helping those that have been dealing with COVID-19 can’t be the ones social distancing. Those are the caregivers at hospitals, nursing homes and/or medical treatment centers around the country, and to them, I thank you all so much for your remarkable work and inspiring efforts during this time.
Along with myself and so many others I’m sure, it was really cool to see Larry Nance Jr., who recently also gave $50,000 to each of the Cleveland and Akron-Regional Food Banks to help provide nourishment to those that they need it in this time, thank the true “heroes” at the Cleveland Clinic.
To every @ClevelandClinic caregiver – every nurse, every doctor, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 – for fighting this fight: @Larrydn22 has a special message for you.
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 26, 2020
Thank you for being world class caregivers today and every day.
Keep going heroes, we need you! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ddQ8Msh71L
As Jr. alluded to in the clip above, he absolutely is a prime witness of the outstanding work nurses and doctors/caregivers at the Cleveland Clinic do that makes a massive difference in the lives of countless people every day.
Jr. has a day-to-day battle with Crohn’s disease, and given that he has that ailment that already can be so debilitating if not properly managed, Nance is also considerably more susceptible to contracting COVID-19, as he stressed in a recent interview with The Athletic‘s Kelsey Russo (subscription required).
Anyhow, it was again really great to see Nance give the true heroes at the Cleveland Clinic a shout out; they, along with other caregivers at other hospitals around the country are the ones that are at the front lines in fighting this COVID-19 pandemic and their work at this time and always is truly invaluable.
At any rate, it’s becoming more and more evident to me that Nance is becoming a key leadership presence for the Cleveland Cavaliers and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who gave a significant donation to the Cleveland Food Bank and the Children’s Hunger Alliance recently (of which the Cavs matched both), and it’s things like this from Jr. that highlight that to me.
On the floor, Nance is the Cavs’ most versatile big man, too, and has had what would be a career-high 10.1 points per game, to go with 7.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals per outing thus far this season going into the NBA’s hiatus, per Basketball Reference.
Again, though, as Jr. hit on, thank you so much, Cleveland Clinic heroes. That really can’t be said enough.