In these viral times, Hornets’ Cody Zeller is trying to figure out what to do next
Like a lot of us, Charlotte Hornets center Cody Zeller still isn’t quite sure what he should be doing as the coronavirus alters our lives by the hour.
Zeller lives alone in a house in the Myers Park area of Charlotte, only about 10 minutes from the Hornets’ home arena. In the past week he has cleaned out his closet, eaten a lot of scrambled eggs and frozen pizzas and made some progress in his quest to watch every single Marvel superhero movie (“and there are 23 of them,” Zeller pointed out).
Still, he has found himself at loose ends a lot — wondering what to do after the NBA suspended its season due to coronavirus concerns on March 11th.
“As professional athletes, you have so many people around you that take care of different parts of your life,” said Zeller, who has played for the Hornets for his entire seven-year NBA career since the team made the former Indiana University star the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2013. “A lot of guys have a chef, or someone to clean your house, or a financial guy. What it turns into is all we are good at is playing basketball, because we don’t have to do anything else. So now, without basketball, it’s like: ‘Where do we start?’”
The rhythm of NBA travel
Zeller has done some good work in the past week, most notably as one of the driving forces behind the Hornets’ push to financially compensate for the lost wages of the more than 500 part-time employees who work events at the Spectrum Center (and at the team’s G league affiliate in Greensboro). He’s also talked on the phone a lot with friends scattered around the world and taken a jog through his neighborhood.
Still, this idea of social distance hasn’t been a natural fit for one of the Hornets’ more social and funnier players. (One of my favorite Zeller lines ever came when he wrote on Twitter in 2018 on his 26th birthday: “Today I turn 26 but I still act like I’m 6, I feel like I’m 36, and my hairline looks like I’m 46.”)
Now 27, Zeller is also used to the incessant traveling rhythm of an NBA player -- even during the offseason, he usually doesn’t stay in Charlotte at his house that often.
That’s why Zeller started a road trip of his own on Friday.
If a national shutdown on the order of what has happened in Italy ever comes to America, Zeller figures it would be better to ride it out with family than to ride it out alone.
But where to go? It wasn’t going to be Chapel Hill. His older brother Tyler played at UNC and now lives there. But Tyler’s wife had a baby daughter this week (Cody told them they should name the new baby “Corona,” which didn’t go over that well).
So going back home to Indiana, where his parents and his other brother still live, made more sense -- even though it would be about a 580-mile drive. And where exactly should he go?
“The scary part about it is a handful of the NBA guys (who have tested positive for coronavirus) are asymptomatic,” Zeller said. “I don’t think I’ve been exposed to it. But my Dad has had open heart surgery. He’s only 57. I think I’m going to go see my brother (Luke) for a few days first and make sure I don’t have any symptoms before I go home.”
Zeller texted me Saturday to say he had completed the trek. “It was a long drive but it’s worth it to be back home with family!” he wrote.
The night the NBA stopped
The last game the Hornets (23-42) played was on March 11. They beat Miami by 11 points on the road — one of Charlotte’s best recent wins. The NBA season was actually shut down before the second half ended, but games in progress were allowed to finish.
Recalled Zeller: “Even before the game, I had said to one of our trainers: ‘I bet we play our next game with no fans.’ That was my worst-case scenario… We came off the court all fired up about one of our better games and we got flooded with news. (Hornets teammate) Nic Batum got on the phone with Rudy Gobert (the Utah Jazz player who was the first NBA player to test positive) and it’s been a whirlwind ever since then.”
Zeller had been working out at the Hornets’ practice facility the past week to keep in shape — that was allowed if the player used his own basket and had only a coach with him. When he lifted weights at the Hornets’ weightroom, the bar was disinfected between sets. Now that option is closed too, though, as the NBA has shut down teams’ practice facilities as well.
Zeller now believes the NBA season won’t resume for at least 2-3 months but that, when it does, teams will play a handful of regular-season games first. “Almost like a preseason,” Zeller said.
From there, it would likely be straight into a possibly modified playoffs — and if the NBA season doesn’t finish until August or September, so be it. Perhaps the 2020-21 NBA season wouldn’t start until around Christmas in that scenario.
“There’s too much money to be lost in not playing the playoffs at all,” Zeller said. “I think we’ll play the playoffs no matter what.”
The Hornets won’t be in those playoffs, of course, but will be part of an NBA draft lottery for a draft that will undoubtedly be pushed back a month or more as well.
“It’s all so weird,” Zeller said. “But we’ll get through it. Just tell everybody out there to be safe.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
