A Toronto Raptors game has been postponed due to COVID-19 and people are nervous
The NBA has announced that an upcoming Toronto Raptors game has been postponed due to COVID-19, in a move that feels eerily similar to the sequence of events that led to all pro sports leagues shutting down in March of 2020.
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) December 13, 2021
The Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls were supposed to square off in Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, Dec. 16, but with ten players and staff members of the Chicago Bulls (including former Raptors star DeMar DeRozan) currently in the NBA's health and safety protocols.
It feels all too similar to the ill-fated March, 2020 Jazz–Thunder game in Oklahoma City that was cancelled moments before tip-off, the first fallen domino that would result in all major professional sports leagues suspending operations.
So far, only two games have been cancelled, but with the still relatively mysterious Omicron variant posing a potential new menace, we could be facing a whole other tier of the pandemic.
Pro sports were sort of the canary in the coal mine for the mass lockdowns that followed in 2020, but with new protocols designed to stop outbreaks in their tracks and the vast majority of the league vaccinated, here's hoping that this remains an isolated, team-specific incident and not history repeating itself.
It begins (again) https://t.co/HU8EB0kpDu
— Josh McConnell (@joshmcconnell) December 13, 2021
The similarities to past events have some biting their nails, and for good reason.
This seems like another reality at this point smh 🤦🏾♂️https://t.co/rh8uAvgBsk
— jTm @ 💯 (@JKenzie95) December 13, 2021
Many are understandably worried about a wave of Omicron, and the postponing of professional sports games is not a good indicator based on recent memory.
— Pooba (@Mr__Pooba) December 13, 2021
Others are angry that the Bulls games are being postponed instead of forfeited.
They should forfeit since we were effected the same way last season and we had to play through the shortage.
— Mohamed Abdi (@Raptors_12345) December 13, 2021
This velvet glove treatment for the Bulls is not fair to the other NBA teams.
A (much smaller) outbreak in the Raptors organization last season led the team to taking the court without several key players in the lineup.
