MONEY is not of the essence. Life is.
That should be today’s screaming slogan—obviously.
The NBA is off. And so is the PBA. The NBA is the world’s biggest basketball tournament. The PBA is the Philippines’ paramount cage league.
With their doors closed indefinitely, they’d lose millions huge enough to build thousands of schoolrooms in all of our third world countries.
The country’s volleyball events in the UAAP and NCAA—not to mention cheerdance competitions—had been shuttered, too.
In collegiate contests, the money-makers are basically basketball, volleyball and cheer dance.
But lost revenues and all, all that pales in comparison to the grief over just one life lost from our tournaments to this vicious virus called Covid-19. God, don’t let it happen.
Thus, when an NBA player tested positive for Covid-19, the NBA swiftly shut off its season. Thrown out. Ejected. Life is too precious that even money can’t buy.
And while Covid-19 victim Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz in now in isolation, his teammate, Donovan Mitchell, would follow suit. And, only the other day, OMG!, Detroit’s Christian Wood, the last man to guard Gobert, became the NBA’s third Covid-19 positive.
Amid the gloom, Wood would wax poetic, writing on Instagram: “The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.” It was a comment alongside a photo of him dunking over Gobert, the reigning NBA’s defensive player of the year and a first-time All Star this season.
Wood’s words sparked a silver lining up there.
There is but one reason for the shutdown of the tournaments we all love, plus, of course, the other events outside of basketball: Safety for all—athletes, league personnel, ball boys, game officials and most especially, our masses of spectators. The Covid-19, which has now infected more than 150,000 worldwide and killed nearly 6,000 (12 in the PH), thrives on crowds.
No vaccine has been invented since its detection in December 2019. Let’s pray to God, whatever you conceive Him to be (atheists, please reconsider?), for help. He is the only cure.