LeBron Returns to Practice After Presumed Swine Flu

NFL News - October 16th, 2009 - Written by Scott

Swine Flu has been a disease dubbed as one with no reservations for which host it attacks. From the common civilian to the college athlete, it has proven to be without preference or bias in the nearly one-year epidemic, starting in Mexico before entering the United States.

Never before, however, has it reached such an icon. On Thursday, it was reported that NBA MVP LeBron James tested positive for Influenza A and is being treated for H1N1. Swine Flu is a strain of Influenza A and has sidelined The King for two days. It has also seeminly attacked two of his teammates and has been found in six others in the NBA.

James missed two days but returned to practice yesterday, with a predictable cold response.

"You come back around and everyone is like, 'Ugh, you got the cooties,' " James told ESPN reporters on Thursday. "They don't want to be around you."

James, Darnell Jackson and Coby Karl are being treated at the Cleveland Clinic, although hard evidence is not ready to confirm or deny the actual presence of H1N1. However, physicians have decided to go with the former as a precautionary measure, hoping to avoid playing catch-up if their illnesses are in fact Swine Flu.

"We feel very comfortable and confident that what we are doing is an appropriate course of action," said Cleveland Cavaliers spokesman Tad Carper. "The key for us is to approach things proactively and from a presumptive standpoint."

Most reports of civilians catching swine flu include a high temperature, scratchy throat, and the worst aches they've ever felt. Jackson admitted that those were the symptoms he had been feeling, spending two days in bed and drinking a gallon of water a day.

"I can't remember ever being that sick," he said.

James said that he felt same symptoms, orchestrated the same routine and believes he has recovered. He said he believes he caught the bug from his teammates at practice, many of whom have been sick, too.

"If it's going to happen, now is the best time," James said. "I don't wish anyone to be sick. I wish great health for everyone. But if this is the time the flu bug is going to hit our team, I'm glad it's happening now."

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