New York mayor Bill de Blasio put the Brooklyn Nets on blast after reports of four players testing positive, including star Kevin Durant, broke on Tuesday.

“We wish them a speedy recovery. But, with all due respect, an entire team should NOT get tested for COVID-19 while there are critically ill patients waiting to be tested,” said de Blasio on a tweet. “Tests should not be for the wealthy, but for the sick.”

National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts fired back on Wednesday, chastising the government for not having enough test kits available.

“I get it,” said Roberts, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. “People should not be having to wait in line. The at-risk population should be the first to be tested. But god damn it, if the government had done what they were supposed to do, we wouldn't be competing for an opportunity to be tested.”

The Nets did not disclose any of the four people infected with the virus, but it took only minutes for Kevin Durant to come forward admitting he was one of them. The Nets reportedly paid out of pocket for these tests, but de Blasio wasn't having it given the shortage of test kits around the country.

Roberts got her point across very clearly — having coronavirus is nothing to be ashamed of — but stigma should be the least of players' worries.

“I'm distressed if any player is distressed about having his name out there,” she said. “There is no stigma attached to testing positive for coronavirus. I'm probably positive for coronavirus if I'm tested. Most of us will. I'm now hearing 50% of the population is probably going to be infected. We need to stop being concerned about there being some stigma about being infected — ‘Oh my God, he's got the ‘rona.'”

Both people have valid points here. Mayor de Blasio was likely outraged by reading that a whole team was tested for the coronavirus despite not being one of the five teams that played the Utah Jazz in the last two weeks.

In fairness, de Blasio tweeted shortly after news broke, without much context as to why the Nets chose to test their entire team. As mayor, his job revolves around giving New York residents equal opportunities. It can be infuriating to live in an outbreak zone and with a shortage of test kits to go around while millionaires receive testing in bunches just for the sake of their peace of mind.

Roberts revealed the Nets were tested because several started to show symptoms, but in many outbreak cities, only people with symptoms are tested. Unless all 15 players showed symptoms, by rule of thumb there shouldn't have been 15 tests administered that day.

There's also the wrinkle that this novel coronavirus (COVID-19) can present itself without symptoms, which is the case with Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and Kevin Durant. That argument brings some validity to Roberts' argument, who also added this:

“We were doing games where tens of thousands of people were coming into our arenas. We were exposing potentially a lot of people to being infected,” said Roberts. “I get it. If you're 65 years old — I'm 64 — and you're symptomatic and want to get tested, it must be difficult to hear about some young'uns getting tested. I get that, and the players get that. But to the extent that there was some effort to find out just how pervasive our infection was so that people would know.

“To be perfectly candid with you, if I was at the arena in OKC when the announcement was made, when the game was canceled, I would be concerned. In many ways, I think it would have been irresponsible for the teams not to test their players and staffers because people in that arena have the right to know if they'd been exposed.”

Where that argument falls apart is when one begins to think about how many other people are high risks to become “super-spreaders” like Patient 31 in Korea. Mailmen, grocery store handlers and cashiers, even doctors and nurses working on these cases can become carriers if not properly equipped to protect themselves.

The fact of the matter is that the Nets had the money to go private and did so. Ideally, everyone would have access to test kits, but teams like the Toronto Raptors, Nets, and now the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers are going private to get their results.

Several others can't afford it and that's just the sad reality of it. The United States is a large country with a massive need for test kits. Mayor de Blasio might have been a little premature in criticizing the Nets for their actions, but the sentiment is still valid nonetheless.