Opinion: COVID-19 truthers in sports like Michael Porter Jr. undermine leagues' restart successes

[turbinetree]

Dan Wolken
USA TODAY

Michael Porter Jr.’s misadventure on Snapchat Tuesday, in which the Denver Nuggets forward revealed himself to be both an anti-vaxxer and remarkably ignorant conspiracy theorist, is no laughing matter.

In dismissing a pandemic that has already killed over 150,000 Americans as “overblown” and “being used for population control,” the 22-year old voiced not only a stunning lack of concern about a health crisis that has touched everyone in some way but also highlighted an information and media literacy problem that has genuinely hurt the country’s ability to solve the problem.

It should also be a warning for sports leagues trying to return under these difficult conditions: There are COVID-19 truthers in your midst, and their skepticism about the seriousness of the virus might pose the biggest risk of all to their success.

Safely ensconced in the NBA bubble, it’s less likely that Porter’s conspiracy nonsense can do any real damage other than to the image of the league. But if sports are a reflection of society, it’s a virtual guarantee that as you extrapolate through non-bubbled leagues like MLB, the NFL and college football, there are probably at least one or two people in every locker room who aren’t going to comply with mask-wearing or social distancing when they’re off the clock because they simply don’t believe this is a big deal.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/07/29/coronavirus-truthers-like-michael-porter-jr-pose-big-risks-leagues/5536970002/

So just maybe there should be a ban on his jerseys making him money..............

[dawg day]

1. I've heard this incoherent nonsense from a Trumper relative

>In dismissing a pandemic that has already killed over 150,000 Americans as “overblown” and “being used for population control,”

That it's both a hoax, and also a conspiracy to kill lots of people. They actually hold those two thoughts at the same time.

[MerryBlooms]

2. Bench him for the season. You cannot trust the idiot to take proper

precautions to protect the team or others. Coach, mark his ass done for season.

eta: Benched from team contact- And No locker room access.

[jayfish]

3. Then You've Got Guys Like Lou Williams.

Clippers' Lou Williams to serve 10-day quarantine, will miss games

The NBA has placed Lou Williams in 10-day quarantine after the LA Clippers guard was investigated by the league for what he did while on an excused absence from the Orlando, Florida, campus.

The league announced Williams' quarantine on Sunday, three days after Williams was photographed by the rapper Jack Harlow at an Atlanta strip club. Harlow quickly deleted the post from his Instagram story and tweeted Friday, "That was an old pic of me and Lou. I was just reminiscing cuz I miss him."

In the photograph, Williams is holding a drink and wearing an NBA mask given out on the Orlando campus.

Sources told ESPN that Williams, 33, has been interviewed by NBA security about his whereabouts while he was away from campus, and he told them that he went to the Magic City strip club in Atlanta for a short time on Thursday, but there were no entertainers present while he was there.

Why sweet Lou? ...why?

[brush]

4. Lou William's misadventure isn't as bad as it seems. He had a legitimate funeral leave...

from the NBA bubble, as did Zion Williamson at about the same time. Williams unfortunately choose to stop at Magic City, a gentleman's club known for it's chicken wings, among other things, for take-out on his way back where another patron took a video of him while he was there. No dancers were performing.

It was perhaps poor judgement but he wasn't there for the "among other things" Magic City is famous for, just for take-out.

The reason I mentioned Zion Williamson who also a had legitimate funeral leave from the bubble, is no one videotaped where he stopped after his relative's funeral.

I believe they both have to quarantine when come back into the bubble.