Russell Westbrook Confirms He Has COVID-19, Offers Update on Current Health

Last week, speculation arose that Houston Rockets star Russell Westbrook had contracted the novel coronavirus.

On Monday, the star guard confirmed the report, saying that he had tested positive for the highly contagious virus prior to his team’s departure for the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla.

While the news of him having the virus is certainly not good, it is positive to hear that the 2017 NBA MVP is “feeling well.” It is also good to see that he is encouraging his 6.4 million Twitter followers to take the illness seriously.

Many of his followers surely live in the Houston area, a city that has been hit particularly hard by the virus in recent weeks.

While the vast majority of NBA players are already in the bubble, Westbrook will look to enter after his quarantine. Whether or not he will be ready to participate in Houston’s regular season games remains unclear.

The Rockets’ first meaningful game inside the bubble will come on July 31. They’ll face off against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

For Westbrook, this postseason will be his first as a member of the Rockets. He’s spent the rest of his storied career as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Surely, he’ll look to help Houston go deep into the playoffs.

To do that, he’ll first have to recover from the illness that has claimed the lives of over 130,000 Americans.