Mo Bamba didn’t appear in the Orlando Magic’s final six seeding games in the NBA’s Bubble. A report indicated that Bamba, who played 10 combined minutes in the team’s first two games, contracted COVID-19 in June, with the big man telling Josh Robbins of The Athletic that he wants people to “take it as seriously as possible.”
While he’s gotten past COVID-19, Bamba is leaving the Bubble to undergo what the team is calling a “comprehensive post-coronavirus evaluation.” It is unclear exactly what this means or what medical professionals will be trying to determine by putting Bamba through this evaluation, but the team did announce that he will miss the remainder of the season.
MEDICAL UPDATE ON MO BAMBA: pic.twitter.com/dhWlCR1vJF
— Orlando Magic PR (@Magic_PR) August 14, 2020
Magic coach Steve Clifford had previous said that Bamba’s conditioning was not up to par, although he could not mention exactly why that was the case. As The Athletic laid out, Bamba catching the virus understandably caused major setbacks in his ability to be in playing shape.
Bamba was fully on track with his hiatus training regimen until the virus prevented him from going to the Orlando Magic’s practice facility for individual workouts at a time the performance staff was increasing players’ cardio routines.
Then, after Bamba had gotten better, after he and his Magic teammates arrived in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World Resort, he registered of couple of false positive tests, which forced him to quarantine for extra time inside his hotel room and miss three days of practice.
There is still plenty we do not understand about how COVID-19 impacts individuals, but some thing we do know include the fact that this can serious sap the strength out of individuals, and as we’ve seen with Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez (and numerous others), a condition called myocarditis in which the heart muscle gets inflamed. Hopefully nothing this severe is impacting Bamba, and he’ll be able to get back to 100 percent as soon as possible.