The Big Lead

J.R. Smith Doesn't Understand Why the NBA Has Testing Protocols and Congress Doesn't

By Stephen Douglas

J.R. Smith and Dwight Howard.
J.R. Smith and Dwight Howard. / Pool/Getty Images
facebooktwitter

There's a COVID-19 outbreak in Washington D.C. linked to the White House. No one knows how or when it really started because apparently the federal government doesn't have the resources to successfully navigate the pandemic the way that the NBA has. This was a surprise to Los Angeles Lakers guard J.R. Smith who decided to watch the news this morning.

No lies detected.

J.R. Smith is right. This entire White House-based outbreak was totally avoidable, but that would have taken some effort and sacrifice. Not just because they probably shouldn't have had a garden party in the middle of a pandemic, but because they should have been testing politicians every day as if they were as important to this country as basketball players.

Nothing demonstrates the complete lack of a plan that the federal government had than 200,000+ dead except maybe the fact that the president of the United States and everyone around him got it all at once. In theory, a functioning government is important to a country. When the people in charge are incapacitated in some manner, that - in theory! - is the opposite of good.

NBA players are tested every single day inside the bubble and they haven't had a single positive result. So the bubble works. Politicians are not in a bubble. The president and senators and representatives are out in the world interacting with people. If anything, they should be tested even more strenuously than basketball players, what with the fact that everyone they meet is outside the bubble. And in some cases they won't even wear masks.

This is just one big "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" situation. If J.R. Smith can turn on CNN for the first time in who knows how long and immediately tweet out the problem that succinctly, whose fault is this? Probably the people in charge who didn't take this as seriously as Adam Silver and the NBA. It's crazy that after months keeping players safe in Orlando, Silver's biggest concern might now that his players might run into a politician.