Miami Heat of America youngster, Bam Adebayo has expressed concern over the possibility of an outbreak of coronavirus in USA’s basketball national team’s camp at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Megasportsarena.com reports that this is sequel to confirmation of an infection of one of his closest teammates in the squad, Bradley Beal had contracted the deadly respiratory ailment and had to stay out in isolation.
Before that player was restricted from the squad, Adebayo had been in close contact with the Washington Wizards guard, who now remains in health and safety protocols and will not be able to play for Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics.
Beal was placed under Covid-19 protocols on Wednesday in Las Vegas, where Team USA has been practicing and scrimmaging in advance of the Games, ahead of which USA Basketball announced that a friendly scheduled for Friday against Australia was cancelled out of caution.
Ironically, Beal started each of Team USA’s first three exhibition games this month and scored 17 points in the win over Argentina on Tuesday.
The Wizards star is coming off a career scoring season in which he finished second in the NBA behind only Steph Curry with 31.3 points per game, along with 4.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists.
Adebayo said he had checked on Beal, who told him that he had no symptoms and the latter news was a tough blow to the players, who said they have been following safety recommendations and hoped for good health.
Beal was expected to play for the Americans two years ago in the Basketball World Cup in China, but had to withdraw from consideration before training camp for family reasons.
After scoring just two points in the Americans’ loss to Nigeria in their opener, he followed with 12 points against Australia and then had 17 on Tuesday against Argentina in the first US victory.
Adebayo is now worried about conditions in the camp this week, and confessed: “It still definitely gives you PTSD, somebody catching COVID. I remember when I had it, just one of those things I wouldn’t wish on anybody.”
