INDIANAPOLIS – The COVID-19 pandemic has now hit one of the Indiana Pacers.
On Wednesday afternoon, guard Malcolm Brogdon announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Brogdon also made it clear that he still plans to finish out the 2019-20 season, by joining his Pacers teammates in Orlando, with the resumption of the season scheduled to start back up in late July.
“I recently tested positive for the COVID virus and am currently in quarantine,” Brogdon said in a statement. “I’m doing well, feeling well and progressing well. I plan to join my teammates in Orlando for the resumption of the NBA season and playoffs.”
Various injuries sidelined Brogdon for 17 of 65 games this season, with a now healed quad injury keeping him out of the team’s most recent games back in March.
Pacers players began reporting back to Indiana in recent days and weeks, with workouts still limited to individual settings.
The team is expected to head down to Orlando sometime in early July, before finishing out the regular season with 8 games, and then the playoffs to follow.
In recent weeks, Brogdon has been at the forefront of the NBA’s response to the social injustice issue continuing to face the United States.
Brogdon and Boston forward Jaylon Brown took part in a protest in Atlanta a few weeks back. Brogdon wanted to lead a march in Indianapolis around this current time, as well, but his contracting of COVID-19 could impact those plans.
Before testing positive for COVID-19, Brogdon had addressed the issue facing NBA players of whether or not to travel to Orlando and finish out the season.
While a few players have elected to back out, playing in Orlando was always something Brogdon was leaning towards.
“I think that guys across the NBA are very mixed,” the 27-year-old guard says about the return to basketball. “Some guys are like, ‘I’m not playing, I don’t want to play. This is not the right time to try and distract us from what is going on with the real issues. I’m not going to prioritize basketball over people’s health in general.’
“Then there’s the other group of guys, ‘Being a black man we have way less opportunities to make this type of money in our lifetime and the things we can do with this type of money to impact our world, impact our families, generational wealth and impact the community is far greater, then sitting out, not getting paid, and then not having the means to help people.’
“Honestly, I see a lot of value in both arguments. Right now, I definitely lean towards having the money, with my sort of philanthropic outreach that I want to do, and the stuff I’m doing right now, you have to have finances to do that, have a platform to do that and whatever I do with the NBA I have to have a reputation where people want to work with me, where people know if I commit to something, I’m going to finish that.”
Now, once recovering form COVID-19, Brogdon is planning to finish his first season with the Pacers, on a much healthier note.
