By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda guard Billy Baron is currently in Florida, USA with his family while the EuroLeague and ABA League are in an indefinite hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Baron talked about the situation with the coronavirus in Florida, how he spends his days and his prediction for the rest of the 2019-2020 season. Here’s what the American sharpshooter said to Serbian network Arena Sport on:
Returning to the USA and life without basketball:
My family and I decided to come back when we had a meeting with the team and they told us that there isn’t going to be any more practices. So there wasn’t going to be anything going and with the possible closing of the borders in all of Europe… So we just wanted to come back to the States before everything closed up. Thankfully we did one day or two before everything closed up. We came here in Flordia. So we’re just here now for the time being. The virus hasn’t reached where we are specifically. It hasn’t been too bad. We live in New York during the summer, and New York is probably the worst state with the coronavirus. So down here in Florida, there are actually still a lot of people out in the streets. Also old people. Yes, they are practicing social distancing. But it’s not like in other areas of the States where it sounds to be much worse.
I do miss basketball a lot. I think it’s been seven, ten days without touching a basketball. It’s really really tough and it seems it’s going to be going on for much longer. I’m just trying to stay in the house and spend some good, quality family time. Trying to stay busy in other ways. Trying to stay in shape as much as I can. Trying to run about five to ten kilometers every single day around the neighborhood. You got The weather here is really, really nice, it’s really really warm. Just trying to stay in good shape as I can. You never know what happens in this situation so you always got to stay ready, always be professional.
On the probability of the EuroLeague and the rest of the domestic leagues in Europe resuming:
There’s a lot of hurdles that have to be jumped over to get us back to playing. It seems that all the control is done by the governments in every single country. As you can see in Italy and Spain it’s really bad right now. I know everywhere else it’s bad as well. For teams like Milano and all the Spanish teams to play, there’s no timetable for that. No one has any idea. We don’t know how long the virus will take to finally die down. We’re just taking it day by day. We’re in kind of a limbo right now. We don’t know what is going to happen. It’s really-really tough. I don’t know whether or not it will be canceled. As times move on, it’s less likely. That’s just my opinion.
On ABA League:
We were really coming together as a team. It was going to be really interesting ABA playoffs. It’s really bad. But everyone is going through this tragedy right now. Basketball takes a backseat to everything. Obviously, everyone needs to try to stay healthy. Hopefully, this doesn’t affect next year. We got to stay on top of this and make sure we take all the right precautions. If we have to cancel the season, we have to cancel the season. It’s tough to do that but like I said, we got to make sure we crush this thing when we can and stay out of it. To all the people in Serbia: I’ve seen pictures. I’m trying to stay as updated as I can. Just try to stay healthy. This social distancing thing that we’re working on is awkward but we all got to do it. Hopefully this thing somehow, someway miraculously dies down and we get back to playing. For all the guys in Serbia: I miss you guys and hopefully, I’ll see you soon.