Leandro Barbosa set high goals in 2020, and after 14 seasons in the NBA, Barbosa hopes to represent the Brazilian national team for the Olympics for the third time, even though he is 37 years old.
But in the face of a global pandemic, Barbosa, like many others, had to revise his list of goals right away. Being able to hold his precious daughter became his primary goal.
Barbosa is now the league's top scorer with 20.1 points per game at Minastanas in Brazil. But on March 21, he was told he had tested positive for COVID-19 in Belo Horizonte two days earlier. By this time, his wife, Tarita Roca, was 38 weeks pregnant, and she was living in São Paulo with Barbosa and was due to give birth on March 26.
Soon, doctors began to worry that Rocca was also infected with the virus. On March 22, for the sake of your child's safety, the doctor decided to induce the birth immediately. Barbosa was in quarantine at this time, with Rocca's mother accompanying him in the delivery room, while Barbosa witnessed the birth of her daughter Isabella Rocca Barbosa through facetime.
"I don't know what to do," Barbosa said, "I just said on the phone, 'Listen, you've got to get through it on your own.'" I said to my wife: 'Think of the children, don't worry about me. ’”
"We're all right now, we're all back to health. The child is also not infected with the new crown virus, thank God. ”
Barbosa won the NBA championship with the Warriors in 2015 and left the NBA after playing for the Suns in 2016-17. He had to self-isolate for the first two weeks of his daughter Isabella's life. Barbosa said he was still reflecting on how much the incident had affected him.
"It was the worst night of my life." Barbosa said. He was referring to March 17, the afternoon of March 17, when he developed the worst symptoms of a COVID-19 infection after training with his teammates.
Barbosa's minas team last played on March 14, when Minas beat Corinthians away from home in an empty game. Barbosa scored ten points in that match, and before the match he lobbied team officials to ask for a league suspension. The Match between Minas and Pinheiros on March 16 was indeed postponed, but the next day he began to feel a sharp pain "somewhere in the middle of his head." This feeling of discomfort also began to give Barbosa a bad premonition.
"To be honest, I feel like I'm going to die." Barbosa said, "I had a terrible fever, my head hurt, my nose felt completely closed, my back was very sore, I couldn't find a position to lie down. ”
Barbosa then added: "I've had a fever before, I've had headaches, my whole body hurts when I'm sick, but I never felt this time. No matter what difficulties you encounter, you have to persevere to the end, this is something I learned when I first arrived in the NBA. But that night was special and it was hard to stick with because this time was completely different. ”
Barbosa said the team's medical staff refused to treat him at his home for fear of contracting the virus, which also increased his stress. Barbosa said that on the first night after Belo Horizonte was diagnosed with the new coronavirus, it was his driver Fabiano da Silva who was nursing him the whole time, driving for 6 hours to return him from Belo Horizonte to São Paulo.
Barbosa was asked to quarantine for two weeks as soon as he arrived in São Paulo, but his brother Marcelo insisted on staying with Barbosa. When Barbosa played for the NBA, the brothers spent a long time together in the United States.
"He wouldn't leave me alone," Barbosa said, "and I said, 'What if you're infected?'" He said, 'I don't care, so let's get infected together.' ’”
Barbosa added: "Rocca's mother was not infected. My brother was not infected and my driver was infected. Only me and my wife were infected. Can you believe it? ”
Barbosa, who had two children in his previous marriage, did not expect that starting a family with Roca would face such a difficult start. They married last July, and Barbosa signed with Minas last December in hopes of playing a good season in the Brazilian league to prepare for the Olympic qualification tournament scheduled for June.
Brazil was originally grouped with Germany, Mexico, Russia, Tunisia and host Croatia to compete for qualification for the Tokyo Olympics. After the Olympics were postponed until July 2021, he had a new goal: to urge the Brazilian league to cancel the rest of the season.
Minas' March 14 match was the penultimate round of the league, which was followed by a suspension. Barbosa has been critical of the league for not stopping the game earlier. "They are the last league in Brazil to be suspended," he said, questioning whether the league's plans to restart the game were wise because "everything here is stopped".
"Of course I want the game to be able to come back," Barbosa said, "because we have the potential to win the title." But I was infected with COVID-19 and I knew what was going on and it was impossible to keep the league going. Now, it's no longer a business issue, it's our health issue. ”