Chicago Bulls Add Another 2 To COVID-19 Protocol, No End In Sight

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bulls’ run of good fortune on the court this season has taken a turn for the worse off it lately and, as with all things related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it’s near impossible to know when it might end.

The Bulls have been Chicago’s lone sports saving grace this winter as the Bears continue to do Bears things, building toward seems like a predictable series of coming events. The Blackhawks remain inconsistent in what has already been a season filled with transition and have shown no signs that better days are coming. But when a COVID-19 outbreak hit the Bulls faster than anyone saw coming earlier this month — including new reported cases on Sunday — what had been a feel-good comeback sports story quickly became on set in real-life, hardcore reality.

The addition of starting guard Zach LaVine and reserve Troy Brown Jr. to the COVID-19 list on Sunday extends the number of Bulls sidelined with the virus to nine. All of those cases have been reported since Dec. 1. The NBA listed 21 players on the COVID-19 list and nearly half of that list is centered in Chicago. The list of names, who also include broadcasters (and former Bulls players) Stacey King and Bill Wennington, has grown faster than anyone could have possibly imagined and has been relentless in hitting more players by the day.

Bulls rookie Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson were added to the protocol list on Saturday.

The Bulls, who have played short-handed for the better part of a week now, will face the Detroit Pistons Tuesday with half of their team in isolation. ESPN reported Sunday that NBA rules stipulate teams must have eight healthy players to play, which means if more players join the protocol before Tuesday's game with the Pistons, the Bulls could become the first team to need to postpone a game because of COVID-19 cases.

In a city where the fight against COVID-19 has been trending in the wrong direction for a while now with a daily average of 913 new cases per day, the Bulls outbreak is a harsh dose of truth that not only is the COVID-19 pandemic not over, but it seems to be hitting harder than it has in a long, long time. And therein lies a lesson for us all.

As with many breakout cases of the virus experienced by those who have been fully vaccinated, Bulls players aren’t getting seriously ill. The Bulls have said on more than one occasion that the entire roster is fully vaccinated, and a few have gotten their COVID-19 booster. But the reality is this: While vaccinations go a long way in protecting those who have gotten their shots, they are not a sure-fire remedy for avoiding COVID-19.

The Bulls are the living, breathing example of that right now.

“We’ve got a lot of guys sitting home with no symptoms right now,” coach Billy Donovan told reporters recently. “That’s obviously a good thing, too, because I think when guys have gone through a little difficulty of getting really, really sick, it’s really made it a lot harder for them coming back. So, we do have some guys that have felt under the weather, we have some guys that have very, very mild symptoms and some guys who just don’t have any.”

While sports often boil down to winning and losing, it’s often more about playing through adversity and persevering difficult times. After winning four straight games to start December, the Bulls have now dropped back-to-back games by 23 and 26 points, respectively.

LaVine is now sidelined on the COVID-19 list until he — like everyone else in protocol — can produce back-to-back negative tests in 48 hours. With so many players in isolation, it may be a while before the Bulls can get back to the winning ways that created a basketball buzz around Chicago. But perhaps, the outbreak is a reminder to everyone that at the end of the day, athletes are humans who run the same risk of contracting COVID-19 as the rest of us.

Yes, they are finely tuned, conditioned professional athletes who compete and train at levels few of us can comprehend. But as the pandemic has shown us time and time again over the past 18-20 months, COVID-19 is not selective in who it chooses to infect. It just does it and often without warning. And lest we think that this virus had started to run its course before the omicron variant reared its ugly head, the increased number of new cases around the country — and throughout the roster of our fine city’s NBA franchise — reminds us that we are far from the end of the road with COVID-19.

And as COVID-19 weary as we may all be, especially all that we have lived through since March 2020, the Bulls may be the reminder that we all need that we just need to persevere and keep pressing on one day at a time because we don't know what awaits us just around the corner.