Former Louisville All-American Asia Durr Opens Up About Her Struggle With COVID-19
(Photo of Crystal Dangerfield, Asia Durr: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - "My life has completely changed since June 8."
That was the date in which former Louisville All-American guard Asia Durr tested positive for COVID-19. Despite being diagnosed with the virus nearly eight months ago, she continues to struggle with the symptoms associated with COVID, to the point where her career as a basketball player could be in jeopardy.
In an interview with Mary Carillo on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”, which aired on Tuesday night, Durr opened up about her daily fight with the complications that have arisen since her diagnosis.
"There’s days where I feel great, like I could go out and go to the store or I could clean up, and then there’s days where I’m like, ‘I just have to stay in the bed,’” she told Carillo. “It’s just like you feel like you get hit by a bus.
"I was back and forth seeing doctors, hospital stuff like that. I couldn’t breathe, I was spitting up blood," she detailed. "Lung pain that was just so severe - it felt like somebody took a long knife and was just stabbing you in your lungs each second. I woke up at 2 o'clock in the morning, vomiting, going back and forth to the bathroom, I couldn’t keep anything down."
In her rookie campaign with the WNBA's New York Liberty, she was hampered by a hip injury but still managed to average 9.7 points per game over 18 appearances and 15 starts.
Less than a month before the start of the 2020 season, Durr announced that she would be opting out of her second year due to the virus. She has lost 32 pounds since her diagnosis, has yet to be cleared to return to the court, and even wonders if her basketball career might be over.
"It’s really challenging for me. I’ve talked to doctors, and they’ve told me I’m not cleared yet. I’m not cleared to be able to do anything physically which could cause 'flare-ups', is what they call it. That’s what’s really hard for me, because in life whenever something was hard, I would go and play. I can’t even do that now. I can’t even shoot a free throw.”
Durr left Louisville as one of the most decorated and accomplished players in program history. She was a two-time ACC Player of the Year and First-Team All-American, and was named the Dawn Staley Winner for best guard and Ann Meyers Drysdale Winner for best shooting guard prior to getting selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft by the Liberty.
She finished her Cardinals career as the program's second-leading scorer behind only Angel McCoughtry with 2,485 points, while also finishing second in made three-pointers (374) and third in made field goals (851).
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