COVID-19 has hit Aron Baynes and his family, and it wasn’t kind to them either.
The Phoenix Suns center told Stadium’s Shams Charania on Wednesday he and his family tested positive for the novel coronavirus “a while back.” In fact, he said hasn’t touched a basketball in the 30-plus days since his initial diagnosis.
Baynes, who spent two seasons with the Boston Celtics, entered isolation immediately after returning his first positive test and stayed away from his family as much as possible. Unfortunately, his family still got exposed, though it’s unclear when due to testing backlogs.
Baynes did find one bright spot to his situation, however.
“The biggest positive to come out of it is that I was the worse-affected,” Baynes said. “They all had very minimal symptoms where it actually put me on my butt for a full week. I slept for four days straight. There was one point where I didn’t see back-to-back hours until four days of being in bed asleep. And I was lucky that it didn’t really get beyond that.”
Baynes’ family since has tested negative, but he continues to test positive.
“I have antibodies, so I’m not contagious. But I still need those negatives because, at the end of the day, that’s the criteria the NBA has set up.”
Phoenix Suns center Aron Baynes (@AronBaynes) tells me on @Stadium that he tested positive for coronavirus and opens up about how virus has impacted life for over a month for him, his wife and kids: pic.twitter.com/v2LDwpsZ89
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 22, 2020
The Suns resume play next Friday against the Washington Wizards.
