Memphis Grizzlies forward Justise Winslow voiced concerns over Twitter recently.
On Friday afternoon, Memphis Grizzlies forward Justise Winslow joined Caron Butler on the league’s twitter recently to talk about a variety of topics, mainly, the bubble concept for the NBA’s return.
Talking with Butler about the bubble concept, Winslow said the following:
"“The bubble is tricky, man…From the COVID standpoint, I don’t think it’s a great idea just to have all these people in a bubble and tight spaces. It’s almost the opposite of social distancing. We’re going to have workers who are working for Disney; they’re going to be going home and seeing their family and doing whatever they want to do, but then they are going to come back.“I’m sure everyone is going to be tested a lot, but we don’t have a cure for this, man. We have a lot of people who are getting sick. Even right here in Texas, it’s peaking again.“It doesn’t feel safe.”"
Winslow’s concerns echo those of other unnamed players, and of Kyrie Irving, who was the first player to bring these concerns to light.
Just a week after the NBA and NBAPA had seemingly come to an agreement on a return to play plan, stories began to arise that Irving had been on a call with some 90 players from outside the executive ranks of the players association, and many voiced concerns over the plan. According to Winslow, there may have been some miscommunication somewhere in the line:
"I think when we agreed to this as players, we agreed to come back. We didn’t necessarily agree to be in a bubble, be on lockdown, to not have our families, to be exposed to the virus, to have all these workers around…We didn’t agree to all that. We agreed to come back and play.”"
Three weeks ago, it’s safe to say that fans and executives alike were incredibly optimistic about a return to play. However, it seems now that the foundation has been shaken a little bit, and now things seem a little more hazy.
The only thing that’s for sure right now is that the health and safety of the players is the utmost importance, and the league shouldn’t punish them for doing what makes them feel safe.