Former Shocker relives the ‘tough decision’ to flee Italy amid coronavirus outbreak
After nearly two weeks in lockdown in his apartment in Trento, Italy with his five-month-old son and longtime girlfriend, Rashard Kelly had a life-altering decision to make in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Shocker standout could either remain in Trento, where he had been playing professional basketball in Serie A, and risk being unable to leave Italy for months due to international travel restrictions, or he could leave and return to America but put his family at risk of contracting the virus while traveling.
“Being a father now, you have to really think things through,” Kelly said. “There’s no more just get up and go. You have to think about your decisions and have to be more careful. You have to make the tough decision because at the end of the day, he’s our number one priority.”
So nearly two weeks ago, Kelly reached an agreement with his team, Aquila Basket Trento, to return home to the United States. He booked the plane tickets, left the next morning at 2 a.m. and drove six hours to fly out of Rome.
Kelly said it was eerie walking through a nearly empty airport with all of the stores closed down. He said they had to fill out paperwork stating their reason for leaving and were given masks to wear in the airport. They boarded a plane headed for New York City with only seven other passengers, all of whom Kelly said were American basketball players from Serie A.
Through all of the travel, the Kelly family returned safely to the United States and have been quarantining at his girlfriend’s family house in Tulsa.
“Everything is going OK here,” Kelly said. “We’ve been at home for about 10 days now. Everyone is feeling fine and we’re happy to be back home.”
Kelly said it has been a surreal past two months living through the worst of the pandemic in Italy, then returning to the U.S. at a time when the coronavirus is starting to spread.
While it took until March 12 for the coronavirus to start affecting sports here in America, Kelly said that he knew of it as far back as February 17, when he was having his temperature taken in Italy.
The region where Kelly played — Trento — is located in northern Italy, but in the mountains, which prevented the area from being hit as hard by the coronavirus. Five of the 17 teams in Serie A played in nearby Lombardy, where nearly half of the country’s coronavirus cases have spawned.
Kelly still wonders if players on his team or ones he played against had COVID-19 before testing for it became more stringent.
“Some guys might have had it prior to February,” Kelly said. “It’s possible you don’t even know if you have it. It’s flu-like symptoms, so who knows.”
Kelly’s team actually played a game on March 4, but five days later the Italian Prime Minister suspended all sporting events and issued a country-wide lockdown. That’s when the hard decision had to be made for Kelly.
“At least before we could walk outside and go to the park,” Kelly said. “Right outside of my apartment was like a coffee shop and a restaurant a couple feet away. It was everything I needed. People were always outside. But then we weren’t even allowed to walk outside. That’s when I realized that I had to do what’s best for me and my family.”
Kelly was in the midst of a successful second season as a pro, averaging 10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1 block for Trento.
Before the season, Kelly had set a goal of leading his team to the second round of EuroCup play and also the playoffs in Serie A. He accomplished his first goal, as Trento advanced in the EuroCup to the Top 16, and the second goal was possible, as Trento finished tied for seventh place in the Serie A standings with the top eight teams making the playoffs.
After a successful rookie campaign in another top international league, Russia’s VTB United League, Kelly hopes a strong second season will set him up for an even better opportunity next season.
“I think things will go back to normal for the most part,” Kelly said. “The players still want to play and be out there and play the game they love. It’s a situation where we just have to stay safe and get through it, it doesn’t matter what country you’re in. I know we’ll get through this, though.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
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