The Minnesota Timberwolves are making some significant moves to help prevent the spread of the dreaded coronavirus. According to Malika Andrews of ESPN, the Timberwolves are linking up with the Mayo Clinic in an initiative that will aim to not only understand the virus more, but also determine the effects it has had on the NBA.
All 30 NBA teams are on board and are expected to fully participate in this study.
This initiative will be spearheaded by Dr. Robby Sikka, who was initially hired by Timberwolves president Gersson Rosas last year as a specialist to deal with the health and fitness of his players. Little did they know that a pandemic would blow up not long after, and it's one that has hit close to home for the Timberwolves because Karl-Anthony Towns recently lost his mother to COVID-19 complications.
Sikka shared a little bit about the state of their research at this point and how far along they have gotten in their study:
“We are learning about this disease,” Sikka said. “We have learned a lot in two months. So if we can take the next two months, learn on the fly, mitigate risk, then we can move pretty quickly to do the right things to have safe play.”
It's good to know that all 30 NBA teams will be participating in this initiative, as it will require their players and staff to provide blood samples for testing. For Sikka, however, this is a social responsibility of each and every team:
“I think teams are obligated to do something right for their communities before they do right for anybody else,” Sikka said.
We all still have a long and troublesome battle ahead against the coronavirus, and initiatives such as these are one of our best weapons in the fight. The NBA is trying to learn as much as possible before making a decision on restarting the season in the coming weeks.
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