"My thoughts are with everybody who is really facing this thing," says Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens
Monday 30 March 2020 07:48, UK
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart has been cleared of the coronavirus, he announced Sunday on Twitter.
Smart joins Utah's Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and reportedly Detroit's Christian Wood with clean bills of health after coming down with the illness.
Smart reportedly had few to no symptoms after testing positive several weeks, with Celtics coach Brad Stevens telling ESPN his player was "doing great" earlier this week.
As for Stevens, he is passing his time the same way many are across the world.
"I try and do everything that we're asked to do," he said. "We get out and we go for walks. ... But, my thoughts are with everybody who is really facing this thing. And, it's just that you feel so bad."
Stevens spends his days trying to stay connected to both his family and Celtics' family the best he can.
He and his wife, Tracy, put together a PowerPoint presentation for his 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter to help explain the scope of the pandemic both in New England and worldwide.
He has also been hopping on video conference calls with his players and coaching staff, though he said they've been light on basketball and heavy on just making sure everyone is staying safe.
"We're like the rest of the world, you know that basketball is taking a far back seat," he said.
Stevens said the day Gobert's positive test became public "will be something that I think we all remember."
As a precaution, Celtics players and staff were also tested, but those tests all came back negative.
"Obviously the days following that we enter this kind of new world," Stevens said. "I think any time you turn on the TV, it hits home more."
While Stevens doesn't think it would be appropriate right now "to be hammering basketball" with his players, they are getting some work done during their downtime.
All of the players have received exercise bikes and a personal set of weights they can use to do voluntary home workouts. Stevens is also getting some of the postseason film study he normally wouldn't complete until after the season done now.
"It helps us dial into what we need to do should we be able to resume playing and what we need to focus on when we get back to practice," he said. "It would be a unique situation to be off for as long as we're gonna be off to have the re-acclimate and recondition. But you do already have a system in with those 15 guys."
For now, Stevens said he's just concentrating on keeping busy rather than trying to predict when he might be able to dive back into basketball full-time.
"I think there is a lot to determine," he said. "And I think you can't determine any of that until you have a timeline. And it's just almost impossible to get a timeline right now."
