NBA suspends season...I'm suspending trading

This has been a crazy night. I was watching hockey, specifically, the game between the Blackhawks and Sharks, when they said that there was a major announcement from the NBA at intermission. When intermission hit, they led off with the NBA has postponed it's season, effective immediately! They planned to finish off tonight's games, but even that didn't happen, since it was revealed one of the referees may be infected.

This is all on Rudy Gobert. the Jazz center was so confident that this was media created hype (It's not, but the stupid think it is...and he believed them) that he made it a point to go around and touch everything he could...unconfirmed rumor that he even licked the microphone two nights ago. Last night he began feeling sick...today it was confirmed that he does, indeed, have Covid-19. The game tonight was cancelled minutes before the start of the game, and, last I knew when writing this (1:24 AM) the players from BOTH teams were still quarantined in their respective locker rooms.

The NBA had no choice but to postpone or outright cancel the remainder of the season. 6 teams had played the Jazz in the last 10 days (the time this current coronavirus takes to show itself) and they have all played other teams since then. That doesn't count the Thunder, who were scheduled to play them tonight. And then you have the referees- including, as mentioned, one who reffed the game they most recently played, and was in the arena tonight for the Pelicans-Kings game, which was cancelled.

Since it does take a while to show up...that means he was sick when he did that, and may have infected other people due to his hubris. Yeah, I have a new least-favorite player in the league.

There's talk that the NHL may suspend the season as well, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The teams that share cities with NBA teams...all play in the same building. I know, from when I toured MSG, that the Rangers and Knicks both go through the same door to get to their locker rooms...and the Knicks are one of the teams that played the Jazz in the last 10 days. I'm scheduling this post so if they do, it may actually be done by time this goes live.

I'm not happy this is going on, but the historic aspect of it...wow. I've never seen anything like this. The last time I am aware of for games being cancelled or postponed for health crises was the 1918 Stanley Cup Finals. The influenza outbreak that year is one of the worst health crises that ever happened in history- second only to the bubonic plague in number of people killed (including some of my own family members). They acted too late in 1918...at least two of the hockey players died from it that year. If it could kill healthy athletes, imagine what it would do to a sick person.

Now, the sports teams are being proactive and are attempting to prevent that from happening. In 1918, they didn't quarantine anyone, and in fact, that's what made it so much worse. When a soldier got sick in WWI, they sent him home, usually infecting anyone he came into contact with along the way. It led to thousands of deaths that could have been prevented had they done in 1918 what they are doing in 2020. If only people would be smart enough to pay attention...

Unfortunately, most people are incredibly stupid and think it's made up by the media. It's not. The NBA stands to lose millions of dollars. Italy and China have been crippled. This is real, this is dangerous, and it's directly affecting me.

With my health problems, I can't risk getting it. They say the main people who are being affected the worst (IE, dying) are those over 65, which I'm not, but my mom is, and those with diabetes and those with compromised immune systems...both of which I have.

So, as such, I'm not doing any trades for a while. While I could still send out cards, I really don't want to go touch the things in the post office. I don't want my mom or brother to either, and then get in the car and start touching the same things I touch all the time. So for now, best to avoid it.  I'm also not planning on attending many of the things I had planned to...nor are we going to do any NYC museums for the foreseeable future.

I've been taking precautions to keep from getting sick for years. With my litany of health problems, I've had to, since I'm more susceptible than normal, healthy people. Healthy is one thing I am not. I trust myself. I DON'T trust other people around me...especially as there are so many people like Gobert who are specifically NOT taking any safety precautions and are trying stupidly to prove it's made up by the media. And even if it's not somebody doing that...it could be somebody who walked down the sidewalk next to one of those people, and got coughed or sneezed on. Nobody's "safe"...this could hit anyone. I'm going to take the steps I can to avoid it hitting me. Since my health problems are dangerous enough as it is, I do not need to put myself further at risk...so...I won't. If that means I miss out on some things I want to do, it's a price I'll pay. I'd rather miss one year of a show than die and miss everything forever. I usually get sick after large shows anyway, although lately I've been able to avoid that...I want to keep that the case.

Prevention really IS the best medicine, at least in this case.