It’s insane to imagine that in a world where we demand instant reactions from our biggest athletes that we won’t be getting our beloved media for a while now. Earlier this month Seria A, Italy’s top-flight soccer/football league banned fans from attending games in an attempt to quarantine the disease. Naturally, that didn’t stop one of the world’s most prolific athletes from saying “what’s good” to his adoring fans.
Last night the US Sports World took it’s first legit hit with the disease as the four major sports that are currently active took a joint stance against allowing media into locker rooms.
If this was a one-off amongst one of the leagues the worry as to its severity might temper, but the fact that all of these leagues worked together on this stance is fairly powerful considering how important the day to day reporting of these teams can be to the fan bases. The NBA is nearing its peak season, NHL playoffs are right around the corner, the MLS has just kicked off and baseball is entering its prime hype season, all times that obviously prove these leagues didn’t take the issue without thought.
One of the most interesting takes of the entire saga is the fact the LeBron James, arguably the most influential American sports athlete of a generation has stated that he will not play in empty arenas. Although I understand James’ thought process here and the utter awkwardness of slamming home a dunk and screaming victoriously at an empty chair is weird AF, sometimes it’s that old saying “For the greater good”.
The E-Sports world has also seen a hit due to the craze of the Coronavirus with Riot Games announcing their League of Legends (LoL) Mid-Season Invitational was being moved to a later date to ensure the safety of those who have to fly in. For everyone who just read that and said out loud “Just do it online” don’t understand the importance of LAN events and how impactful that is for the sport to maintain individual star status. Trust me, it’s just better live.
The next big step is to understand what this will impact when it comes to the Olympics considering not just the fans and media but the insane number of athletes this world competition holds. Many sources say that due to the traveling that occurs and the mass groups of people from various locations it only makes sense to postpone the Olympics. The Olympics is scheduled to be held in Japan.
I like to sit down and look at how the sports world is impacted by the day to day worries of the world as a whole, mainly because we look up to our athletes at almost every other turn in our lives. Steph Curry was checked last week for the Coronavirus after feeling ill but was later diagnosed with the seasonal flu.
All in all, no matter what side of the fence you are on with the level of caution you can take with the disease, let’s hope and pray that this ends soon. Whether the hype of the Coronavirus is accurate of overblown, sometimes precautionary decisions are just that…precautionary.
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