The men’s basketball team, which is already installed in Las Vegas, where it will face the last stretch of preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, received this Sunday great news. Gabriel Deck, who had tested positive for coronavirus hours before traveling to the United States to join the team, received medical discharge and will immediately leave for the North American country to join the squad.
“Tortu you have just been discharged from the doctors and will be traveling tonight for Las Vegas. We warmly thank all those who accompanied him these days and really cared about his evolution, “he communicated through social networks. the press team from the Santiago forward.
Deck, which after good performances in Oklahoma city thunder (his first season in the NBA) had returned to Argentina to enjoy a few days off in his native Colonia Dora, tested positive nine days ago. From the Argentine Basketball Confederation reported at that time that the player, who had already received the two doses of the vaccine anti-Covid, he was without symptoms in very good health.
Sergio Hernandez, coach of the selected team, acknowledged in a talk with Clarín that he was “a shock” hear the news. “We have been in a pandemic for a year and a half and every time someone close to us has covid it is shocking,” he said, although he tried to relativize the issue from a sports perspective.
“It is part of what we have to do; we have lost other players in other World Cups and Olympic Games two days before the tournament or in the same tournament and we always did the same: we enhance what we have and we wish a speedy recovery to the player who is convalescing, “said the coach.
Without Deck, the team began on Saturday June 26 in Las Vegas (it was in batches due to the limitations of tickets and flights), departing from Argentina and Europe. There they met others, such as Facundo Campazzo, which were already in North American lands. In the first week, the team trained without Deck.
Deck closed his first NBA season with good performances in Oklahoma. Photo Alonzo Adams / USA TODAY Sports
“The team will not change the way you play because that is what we are looking for, that the team is above all things. Be clear about what to play and then see the tactic, that there it can be different in some things in which we get the most out of it. If it is, we will take advantage of it, and if not, we will adapt. We await him with open arms and we will train without crying absences, “said Hernández.
Luckily for the coach, the Santiago native completed the various complementary studies in recent days and received this Sunday the discharge to join the group this Monday.
The selected team will concentrate until July 17 in Las Vegas, where they will play four friendlies, before traveling to Tokyo.
