Lakers, NBA Reveal How They’re Keeping Busy During Coronavirus Pandemic

Getty LeBron James, Lakers

There’s no basketball on! The NBA’s season was put on hold since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Fourteen individuals from seven different NBA teams tested positive for the coronavirus.

Most notably, the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, Detroit Pistons’ Christian Wood, Brooklyn Nets forward, Kevin Durant and Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart have all gone public with testing positive for coronavirus.

Jaqueline Cruz-Towns and Karl Anthony Towns, Sr. parents of Minnesota Timberwolves big man, Karl Anthony Towns both tested positive for COVID-19.

Last week, Towns revealed via Instagram that his mother was in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator after her condition had been “deteriorating,” he said in an emotional Instagram video. His dad is at home and quarantined and told me by phone that he’s home and that he’s “doing well.”

Being strong in tough times matters.

A native of Newark, New Jersey, NBA Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal uses his upbrining in Newark, New Jersey as a muse to keep going stong. “It’s nothing that can get me in panic mode,” Shaquille O’Neal told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“I learned a long time ago, you don’t worry about the problem. You learn about the solution. So we all know the problem. The solution: wash your hands, try to stay in social distance, follow the rules and everything should be okay. I can’t get in panic mode. Panic mode is being down by one at the free-throw line in the championship game and everybody’s watching. Halle Berry is in the stands, Robin Givens in the stand… you worried you’re gonna miss.”

Los Angeles Lakers point guard, LeBron James says he will begin conditioning this week despite the uncertainty of when the NBA season will resume. “When you’ve been building six months of conditioning and preparation and then [it’s gone],” he said on the Road Trippin Podcast.

NBA free agent, Jamal Crawford has been on the radar of teams like the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.

While fielding calls and working out, the former three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year is also balancing his primary role of being a dad with young children. “School starts for them online of course at 9am in the morning and goes until 3pm,” Crawford tells Scoop B Radio.

“In between that, my two younger ones take a nap at around like, 1:30. That’s when I’m able to get my work in from 1:30 to about 2:30. Then I can get an hour there and then they come back and finish up their last part and then when they finish I can get back to it. I actually have a gym at my house. Not a basketball court, but a full range gym. It has boxing in there, I have pool in there, I do a lot of yoga based exercises.”

Coronavirus has also impacted other sports. NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament was cancelled and Major League Baseball has pushed back their opening week for at least a couple of weeks.

Where do we go from here?

“If we do this right, then we’ll be able to start on this virus pretty quickly,” Dr. Oz Mehmet told CBS Radio’s Zach Gelb Show.

“Certainly by June – that sounds like a long time away – but within the next two months we’ll be able to slow it down so much so that everybody will catch up to it and then we’ll be able to loosen everything up and it’ll go back to life as much as possible, back to normal.”