Get well soon Matt! #RaiseHigh

dmvpiranha wrote:

Wishing Matt a full and speedy recovery!

It's honestly hard to look at that picture and not be frightened just looking at it with the monitor in the background, even if it's just precautionary.

DMVpiranha, I agree, it is very difficult. I know of 7 people who have died from this and 1 of them was young. I feel anyone on this board that tries to diminish the seriousness of this (or suggests just letting people get sick and hopefully recover) is not a serious person. 

Perhaps there are exceptions to this rule, but I don't know of any young people who get admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 for precautionary reasons.  The only way you're getting admitted to the hospital and taking a bed is if there is something seriously wrong or a likelihood that something could go seriously wrong. 

Thank goodness Matt has a good medical team to support him. Beyond that Matt and his family and friends need our collective prayer.  

I'll ask this question of the people here.  After seeing Matt and his Mom above and reading her words, would anyone think it's a mistake to cancel the rest of the season? I feel it is the right and prudent thing to do.

Last edited by 22ndandF (2/06/2021 2:11 pm)

22ndandF wrote:

I'll ask this question of the people here.  After seeing Matt and his Mom above and reading her words, would anyone think it's a mistake to cancel the rest of the season? I feel it is the right and prudent thing to do.

Not at all.  I also wouldn't object to the season restarting for GW, but I would hope the players and coaches have the ability to opt out at any time.

We are all facing this in our own lives.  What is an acceptable risk for me (going to a supermarket, for example) is not to a good friend of mine in NY, who is caring for her elderly mom.  We cannot put our own pandemic norms onto anyone else, but we can respect them for whatever decision(s) they make.

I'm glad Matt is out of the hospital and I remain committed to supporting the program by respecting whatever happens.

My best to all of you,

Barry
 

BGF wrote:

22ndandF wrote:

I'll ask this question of the people here.  After seeing Matt and his Mom above and reading her words, would anyone think it's a mistake to cancel the rest of the season? I feel it is the right and prudent thing to do.

Not at all.  I also wouldn't object to the season restarting for GW, but I would hope the players and coaches have the ability to opt out at any time.

We are all facing this in our own lives.  What is an acceptable risk for me (going to a supermarket, for example) is not to a good friend of mine in NY, who is caring for her elderly mom.  We cannot put our own pandemic norms onto anyone else, but we can respect them for whatever decision(s) they make.

I'm glad Matt is out of the hospital and I remain committed to supporting the program by respecting whatever happens.

My best to all of you,

Barry
 

Barry, thank you for your post which I feel is thoughtful and I understand your feelings.  I will just point out that when you get sick or very sick, which is going to happen to many people, including people who decided they wanted to play basketball, you have decided that you are also okay with putting at risk the health (both the physical and mental) of other people, including health care professionals, front line workers, etc. And, if you have to be admitted to the hospital, then you are okay with taking resources from someone else who may have a terrible case of Covid-19 or cancer or some other terrible issue. I am astonished that so many people seem to find that acceptable.  I feel if the Government hadn't lied to us and had instead bee honest and encouraged everyone to take appropriate precautions, we wouldn't even be having this discussion because the spread would be at a relatively low level.

Last edited by 22ndandF (2/08/2021 9:25 am)

I would say that there certainly was a spike in infection rates for states like SD and ND and other states that didn't have mask mandates.  However, there wasn't a real experiment about masks since lockdown fatigue had long ago set in. Look at the crowds in Tampa last night to see how many people were complying.  I don't know if Florida has a mandate, but common sense still says were a mask.  It is hard to draw solid conclusions about masks and infection rates, only that masks help prevent covid.  Of course they are not perfect - my glasses fog up whenever I put on a mask, so much so that it would be dangerous for me to wear a mask and drive.  I think Europe also has lockdown fatigue, so the rise in infection rates could be due to that or to the new variants of Covid.   I doubt that very many people wear masks in homes even when it's got non-household members visiting. Hence the dramatic rise in infections over the holidays.
Barry is welcome to move this discussion to the appropriate place.

GW69 wrote:

Rising -I beg to differ-Almost all my colleagues believe if Trump had been upfront from the get go and called this crisis a crisis and showed strong leadership many lives could have been saved.

GW69, there are many smart people who have concluded same.  Imagine if Trump had not lied and denied science.  But the anti-science, Trump supporting crowd will fight you to the death claiming it's probably not true or throwing around a ton of bull!@#$.  Last week, my friend's mother died from COVID-19 complications.  Before she got sick with it, she never had any serious health issues.  She was a nurse. She was 63. She's dead now, thanks in great part to political liars and the insanity of people questioning and denying science.
 

Rising-I commend your relentless energy.I want you on my side in a foxhole!Having said that minds greater than yours and ,definitely mine ,see this very differently.One of those “agree to disagree” kind of thing.

BGF wrote:

BC wrote:

Barry is welcome to move this discussion to the appropriate place.

In the absence of any real GW hoops (on-court) news and discussion, I have no problem with this being on here.  It's an interesting conversation, and an important one.  

My wife is a teacher who already has started (and has for some time) met with her pre-k special education students.  She was part of the early test groups that were in-school for a couple of months in the fall.  Of course she came home every day after work and engaged with my kids and me.  I go food shopping every week and run other errands that need to be run.  I take every precaution that is advised and yet I know that I am still putting myself at risk, my wife at risk, my kids, my wife's students, and every cashier, worker, and passerby.  (She's now vaccinated, but the rest of us aren't, meaning she can still get it from us and pass it on, even if she won't have symptoms.)

The point is that this discussion about whether there should be college sports is a small issue.  The real issue is what do we need to do to mitigate the spread of the virus to the greatest extent possible.  And now with the vaccine, it's how do we get everyone (or as many as are willing to be) vaccinated.  We know at this point that even if those 7500 vaccinated fans at the Super Bowl are protected from having serious symptoms that they are not protected from actually being infected, and then spreading it to others who haven't been vaccinated.

My sense of it is that Biden's administration is doing all of the right things, but "we the people" have to buy into this, too. Much better than what we had from our government leadership when the plan was to gain herd immunity through letting people get the virus.  That wasn't a plan to help the people, it was a plan to let the strongest survive and the weakest die.

Should there be GW hoops?  Probably not.  But is it any worse than anything else we do?  Not really.

But I do understand that if we stop all of our retail, our dining/fast food, our non-urgent medical care, and especially our education, then we are choosing a different poison that will cause both short-term and long-term negative impacts, life-changing and life-threatening impacts in many cases.

So, do I care that GW hoops and college sports are going on?  I'm numb to this.  It's NOTHING compared to the question of schools and social programs, retail and businesses operating.  College sports is a speedbump compared to the big stuff.

So if they want to play, let them.  If they don't want to, let them opt out.  If a school or league (Ivy) want to not play, great...they made a decision based upon their views of how to best handle this.  

 

Barry, I feel you make more good points and I appreciate the way you write about them.  There are at least two sides to the issue.  But in the case of college sports, the players are really pawns as they do not get paid. These young people are mostly not afraid to get sick because they know in all likelihood they will recover. The university gets the money and I feel take advantage of the student athletes. So I don't agree that if they want to play, they should play.  I feel the university system is negligent.  And when the players do get sick, they spread the disease to others. Like my friends mom who was a nurse. She died from COVID-19 infection last week. She was 63 year old.  I don't think that's okay. We know how to slow the spread of the virus.  I'm not saying don't get groceries. I'm not saying to stay home from work. I'm not saying don't go to the doctor.  I'm saying wear a mask, socially distance and don't partake in unnecessary activities.  That's the way to get the spread under control.  Almost every health care professional in the world agrees. We've were lied to for a year by a government that had no plan.  Stupid and/or selfish people listened to that crap, repeated the lies and stupidity and now we've got an unimaginable crisis on our hands. 

I don't see college basketball as a necessity.

Last edited by 22ndandF (2/08/2021 9:20 pm)

22nd and F - Sorry to hear about your friend's mom. The loss of life from any cause is awful so my prayers and condolences to you and your friend.

I hear your opinion and I know many share it about not playing. But I think there is one misconception leaving alone the conclusory statements as to how we got here which we will have to agree to disagree on.

That misconception is that players are pawns. No player was threatened with loss of a $75,000+ annual scholarship if they chose to opt-out this season (as some have). You say the University gets the money. What money? In 2020-21 GW will lose money as it has suffered from decreased donations and has no ticket revenue. Absent a trip to the NCAAs there is no money. So, approximately 285 schools will have no revenue this year and will in fact lose money.

To me, the better question now given where we are in this pandemic is if you are going to have these players play why has the NCAA not insisted on immediate early vaccination? That seems to be the fair thing. We are asking these players to expose themselves to some level of risk - the least we can do is vaccinate them early. If you assume 25-30 vaccines per team (players, coaches, trainers, administrators) you are talking about under 22,000 vaccines for all of D1 men's and women's basketball. That would hardly affect the national vaccination program. In essence, you treat the players and others as essential personnel. I would argue we should do this for the NBA and NHL as well and as we get to the Spring, MLB. These people are exposing themselves to risk largely for our entertainment. We need to do better in protecting them if we are going to play.

danjsport wrote:

GWrising, while the players may not have been threatened with loss of scholarship, they are truly in an impossible situation.  SOMEBODY would choose to play, because the opportunity for a scholarship and chance to play college basketball would be worth it.  Does that threaten playing time moving forward?  Does it threaten being told the scholarship a year later won't be renewed?  Is it seen as being less committed to basketball for those with professional aspirations?  The issue is not as clear as you're making it out to be.  These players were not given a true "choice," even if there was no explicit threat.  With a short window for professional opportunity and an unclear future, the choice was effectively made for them.  As to "losing money," I don't know how much GW is losing by playing as to how much it would lose by not playing.  I'm willing to bet that the NCAA and A-10, by playing the season, will make money--or lose less--by playing.

I do not think sports are essential.  If the choice is to not have sports or to vaccinate athletes above others, I choose no sports.

But that's not the choice danjsport. We are already playing and that ship has sailed. Having made the determination to play, it would seem that the NCAA should be doing its best to vaccinate. Your question would have been more relevant months ago when the decision to play was being debated (if a vaccine had existed then).

As for the scholarship, the NCAA granted an extra year for eligibility to all currently enrolled student-athletes. That was expressly done to eliminate the pressure to play if one felt otherwise. As for your other reasons, those are all individual. People do all sorts of things based on perceptions of risk and reward. If we are going to say you can't play because of COVID which presently has about a .05% risk of death for 20-29 year olds, then why do we allow activities for players with a much a higher risk of death like riding in an automobile? I know the likely answer is because an automobile is necessary for movement and productivity. Ok, well some have made the value judgment that playing this year is necessary for productivity.

I don't think it's our place to make value judgments here about what is important. I don't know what your profession is but if we decided it wasn't important and you wouldn't get paid during the pandemic, I am certain you would have a problem with that judgment.

One of the most troubling things about this pandemic is for those who think everything not affecting them directly ought to be shut down. I love when we get the list of essential jobs from each governor. Something tells me that if your job is the only way to put food on the table and a roof over your head, you just might find it essential. You and others may not view sports as essential and that's fine. But for the reasons you stated, some others might. I think players had and continue to have the right to choose whether to play understanding all the risks and rewards of each decision. There are no perfect options in this pandemic environment for anyone.