By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Danilo Gallinari talked to ESPN about him connecting with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department to provide funding for 400 coronavirus testing kits and protection equipment including face shields, gloves, gowns, and N95 masks.
“There is a need, and so people in my position, if we can help, if I can help, it’s something that I feel that I want to do and I need to do,” he underlined, “It was great to collaborate with the local institutions and be able to set this up. Since I’m here, I’m leading the quarantine here. This is where I am, so it feels even better to be able to help the situation here.”
The 2019-20 NBA season is temporarily suspended, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Italy, his country, was among the first parts of Europe directly affected by the COVID-19 spread and has since been one of the countries hit hardest.
“Knowing what’s going on in my country and what my family has been through both in France and Italy if I can help mitigating or at least avoiding some of the troubles we had early on in Italy, and we can do better here in OKC and the States in general, that’s good,” he added.
Shortly prior to the NBA season being suspended and himself confined at Oklahoma City, Gallinari talked about games possibly being contested behind closed doors.
“I wasn’t predicting anything, or I wasn’t a magician. I was just telling everybody what was going on in Italy was something very possible in the States, too,” he mentioned regarding his statement.
“Fortunately, Adam Silver did an amazing job, closing everything right away, so we didn’t go through Phase 2. We never even played games with no fans,” he pointed out, “After what happened, it was great for him to do what he did and stop everything. It was the right thing to do. So I’m glad. It’s been tough, but as players, we’ve been quarantined since March 11, so we started the quarantine that night.”
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