Member-only story
Politics explain little in state-level differences in new COVID-19 cases and deaths
By Kent R. Kroeger (June 23, 2020)
A prominent, national sports reporter once told me the dumbest athletes in professional sports are tennis stars.
I thought about the comment today when I read that the world’s number one men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic has tested positive for the coronavirus.
I hate to pick on a person when they’re down (actually, I don’t), but the story of how Djokovic most likely contracted the virus is what I find dumbfounding.
As reported in The New York Times, Djokovic and his wife, Jelena, tested positive for the coronavirus after a tennis tournament he organized in which “no one wore face masks and social distancing wasn’t enforced in the stands during the series.”
According to the Times story:
“Players mingled freely with each other after matches and posed for photographs with ball kids and tournament officials. There was no systematic testing done for the coronavirus on the participants before the event began, according to the organizers. Besides the Djokovics, at least three prominent players have tested positive: Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki, a Serbian whose wife, Aleksandra, also has tested positive along with two coaches…
