Utah Jazz point guard Mike Conley Jr. was not thinking about himself when news broke out that his teammates Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the coronavirus last month.
Instead, the 32-year-old floor general feared for the health of his two children and his wife, Mary Peluso, who is currently pregnant with their child.
“That was kind of my first priority and my first worry at the time,” Conley shared, via Sarah Todd of Deseret News.
“Even when this was first coming out, there wasn’t a lot of research or a lot of cases documented of what happens with pregnant women or children when they’re born or whatever, so it was a little scary for us,” he added.
Luckily for Conley, he tested negative for the contagious virus and his wife's pregnancy has also gone without complications. Gobert and Mitchell, meanwhile, have since made full recoveries from COVID-19 along with the other infected NBA players.
Conley was not the only NBA star who dealt with the same initial concern, as Boston Celtics swingman Gordon Hayward also shared the same plight earlier this month.
With the NBA on pause, the Jazz facilitator is making the most of the opportunity of spending quality time with his kids.
“I’ve been chasing kids around, it’s exhausting. I really am thankful for the nights we get in hotels and road trips, those things are needed at some point,” Conley said. “They are a handful and my wife being pregnant she can’t do as much so I’m on call doing a lot with them.”
After a bit of a struggle fitting in Utah at the start of the 2019-20 season, Conley became a huge part of the Jazz's success. He averaged 13.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists on 40.5 percent shooting from the field and 37.6 percent from three. Conley also recently edged Zach Lavine of the Chicago Bulls in the NBA's first-ever HORSE Competition.
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