Marcus Smart Is Donating His Blood Plasma To Defend Against Coronavirus, So Give This Man DPOY Already

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Marcus Smart was in the running for NBA Defensive Player of the Year before the world stopped spinning, now he’s piously helping defend against a global pandemic.

Two days after being officially deemed “Corona Free” after testing positive two weeks ago, the Celtics guard and fan favorite is donating his blood plasma to National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project to aid ongoing research about the coronavirus, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Michael Joyner, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said Tuesday that he believes the experimental treatment “can be disease-modifying and reduce duration and severity in some patients.” The therapy reportedly uses antibodies in blood from recovered patients to dilute the virus in infected patients.

ESPN reports that Smart is one of at least four recovered NBA players plan to follow Smart’s lead, which is excellent news for the Plasma Project doctors.

“These are big men with blood volumes, and as a result [they] have a lot of plasma volume,” Joyner said. “Frequently people who are physically trained also have an increase in their plasma volume from what you would expect from them just being regular-sized guys.”

DPOY. Book it.

 

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.