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FILE – In this Saturday, March 7, 2020 file photo, Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert (27) talks to guard Donovan Mitchell, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons in Detroit. Both players have tested positive for the coronavirus. The result of Gobert’s test forced the NBA to suspend the season. (AP Photo / Duane Burleson, file) lessFILE – In this Saturday, March 7, 2020 file photo, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) talks to guard Donovan Mitchell, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons, in … more
Photo: Duane Burleson, Associated Press
Photo: Duane Burleson, Associated Press
It has been more than three months since Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert contracted the new coronavirus, but has not yet fully recovered his sense of smell.
“The taste has returned but the smell is still not 100 percent,” the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year told the French newspaper L’Equipe, which published his quotes on Wednesday. “I can smell the smells but not from afar. I spoke to specialists who told me it could take up to a year.”
Gobert told the newspaper that he still feels “strange things,” but he doesn’t know if that is attributable to the lingering effects of the virus or the time that has passed since the last time he played a game.
“I’m starting to train thoroughly,” said Gobert. “I have not yet played five against five, but I train individually. I do boxing, swimming, running in the mountains. Today I would not say that I feel more tired than before. But I had experiences for a month and half an hour ago, which scared me. I felt like an ant on my toes and wondered what it could be. There were quite a few little things like that. “
Gobert reported losing his sense of smell days after testing positive for the coronavirus on March 11. His positive result led to the postponement of the Jazz game that night against the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The NBA suspended his season hours later.
The 28-year-old received a backlash by mockingly tapping the journalists’ microphones two days before his positive test. Days later, he pledged $ 500,000 to employee-related relief efforts related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There was a lot of fear,” Gobert told the French newspaper Le Parisien on Tuesday. “The NBA was waiting for a first case to stop the championship. It fell on me! I became the image of the coronavirus for the Americans, the domino that triggered the end of the season, but it was not me who brought the virus to the States United.”
Gobert averaged 15.1 points and a record 13.7 rebounds before the NBA suspended his season. The league will resume play on July 30 at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Florida. On Friday, the NBA finalized a 22-team schedule, which has the Jazz against the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 1.
With an increase in coronavirus cases across the country after numerous states relaxed their physical distancing restrictions, several players have chosen not to join their teams in Florida for the resumption of the league. Of the more than 300 players who returned to their local markets last week, 16 tested positive for the coronavirus and will self-quarantine.
Others have debated whether resuming the game will dilute the power of the message in the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement that has resulted in worldwide protests this month.
Gobert told Le Parisien that the move is “justified” and that the money earned by players in these games may further help the cause.
“The situation is special in the United States,” said Gobert. “It is abnormal for the police or the justice system to see him differently depending on the color of his skin. There is no perfect society, but justice must be the same for everyone.”
