Boucher sorry for stepping out.
Coronavirus outbreak: What Raptors would lose if NBA season is called off
The biggest loss would be the chance to defend their title. Even after losing Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in free agency, the Raptors remained one of the most formidable and resilient teams in the NBA. Toronto held the third-best record in the league, the second-best defense, and five of their top-seven rotation players were in the midst of career years when the season was suspended.
What’s even more impressive is how the Raptors fared in the face of adversity. Toronto lost more games due to injuries than any other playoff team, but it showed a unique ability to succeed in spite of the odds. Look no further than their last game of the season: They were without Fred VanVleet and Marc Gasol, lost Norman Powell less than two minutes into the game to an ankle sprain, were playing on the second night of a back-to-back against the fourth-seeded Utah Jazz, and yet still found a way to win.
There have been about a dozen results like that for the Raptors this season. They survived overtime on opening night as Pascal Siakam announced his arrival with 34 points and 18 rebounds after receiving his ring. They beat the Lakers in Staples Center without Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka because Chris Boucher and undrafted rookie Terence Davis stepped up. They beat the Blazers after VanVleet outscored Damian Lillard 30-9. They set a franchise record with 40 assists in a 36-point blowout over the Hornets. They held Joel Embiid scoreless to beat a Sixers team without two starters. They went up 40 points at halftime against the Jazz. They completed a 30-point comeback against the Mavericks with Kyle Lowry leading four third-stringers. They avenged their Christmas Day loss by dominating the Celtics in TD Garden with Pat McCaw flirting with a triple-double. They set a Canadian sporting record with 15-straight wins before the all-star break. When that streak was snapped, they responded by walloping the Pacers by 46 points to set another franchise record, then went 4-1 on a West coast roadtrip.
What Do We Do Now? Sports Media Ponders the Coronavirus. – The Ringer
If readers forget to remind us, “real” journalists do the honors. I sometimes think of a New Yorker story that ran a few months after September 11. To accommodate a flood of news, The New York Times printed its sports page upside down for a while. Executing a perfect think piece cartwheel, The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg argued “news about sports is not really news at all—not, at any rate, in the sense that news about politics, economic and social developments, and international affairs is news.” Talk about rubbing it in.
During the coronavirus pandemic, a funny thing has happened on the sports beat. Those non-newsmen and women have shined when summoned to the adult table. On Wednesday night, during the waning minutes of the NBA season, Van Pelt himself was excellent when toggling between Doris Burke, Ryan Ruocco, and Royce Young. Van Pelt turned a gamecast into a newscast. Burke stumped for paid leave for hourly workers at arenas and wondered why the NBA was insisting on playing the Pelicans-Kings nightcap. (It was ultimately called off.)
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Friday’s edition of First Take was full of sober voices asking the right questions. Writers have investigated how the Utah Jazz and people connected to them got ahold of 58 scarce coronavirus testing kits after Rudy Gobert tested positive. The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss called the NBA’s early measures to contain the virus “incremental, tangential, and, in the end, irresponsible.”
There were viral truth-tellers you didn’t see coming. On Friday, radio host Jim Rome welcomed an epidemiologist into the Jungle. Toward the end of his interview, Rome gently subtweeted the moron portion of his fan base: “If somebody listening right now is saying, ‘Look, I’m healthy. If I get the coronavirus, I will be fine. I’m not worried. Everybody is freaking out over nothing’—what would your response be to that person?” Rack ’em!
Of course, there was also some bad stuff. But no profession is perfect.
7 more days to go 🤞🏿🙄 pic.twitter.com/w6SxURI08h
— Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka) March 17, 2020
The Raptors’ Chris Boucher apologizes for shopping during quarantine | The Star
The Toronto Raptors’ Chris Boucher has apologized through social media channels for disregarding a self-isolation edict from the team and the NBA after taking a test for the coronavirus.
Boucher was spotted shopping at a downtown Toronto Loblaws last Thursday, after he had been tested for the rampaging virus following the team’s return from a western road trip two days earlier.
“A few days ago, I broke our team-mandated self-quarantine,” Boucher said on his social media feed. “I want to apologize to the city of Toronto, our fans and the Raptors organization.”
Boucher and the rest of the 50-plus team travelling party were given coronavirus tests Wednesday and Thursday after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, who the Raptors had played on Monday, became the first North American professional athlete to test positive, a move that precipitated a shutdown of the entire league. The results of those Raptors tests weren’t made public until Friday, a day after Boucher’s shopping excursion.
None of the travelling party turned up positive for the virus but everyone remained under a 14-day isolation protocol.
“He has been told to self-monitor for any symptoms. However, he broke protocol. He is extremely regretful,” the team said in a statement Monday.
“While I have tested negative for COVID-19, it was never my intention to endanger our community,” Boucher said in his statement. “I recognize my mistake and have remained self-quarantined since. Let’s stay safe Toronto.”
