Goodwin left nothing up to the imagination to his Twitch audience recently.
Former Atlanta Hawks point guard Brandon Goodwin’s season ended early last year due to “minor respiratory condition,” according to a team report this past May. The Hawks went on a deep postseason run to the Eastern Conference Finals and the team decided not to bring the Norcross graduate back after drafting Sharife Cooper and signing Delon Wright. Goodwin has not signed with another NBA team since.
Recently, on a Twitch stream, Goodwin revealed his side of the story, and it all starts with him receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I got sick and I never quite recovered from it,” Goodwin said on the stream, as posted on YouTube by Cosign Zee. “I would always have back pain, I was just super tired in the games.”
Goodwin used Atlanta’s back-to-back against the Philadelphia 76ers on April 28 and April 30 as an example.
“Bro, I was so tired,” he said. “I felt like I couldn’t run up and down the court. My back was hurting.”
The Hawks then had a three-game homestand from May 1-5.
“My back really started hurting bad,” Goodwin recalled. “Then, I’m like, ‘OK. I need to go to the doctor. That’s when I found out I had blood clots. That all within the span of a month.”
Goodwin then left nothing up to the imagination when he revealed what he believed caused the health issues.
“I was fine until then,” Goodwin said. “I was fine up until I took the vaccine, I was fine.”
Blood clots have been reported as rare side effects of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Women under the age of 50 are advised to remain cautious about the rare but increased risks of developing a blood clot from the J&J vaccine, the CDC says, a risk that “has not been seen” in other vaccine options.
“People trying to tell you, ‘No. It’s not the vaccine.’ How do you know?” Goodwin asked. “You don’t know.”
In seemingly another Twitch streaming clip (same link as above), Goodwin doubled down on his belief the vaccine caused his health issues.
“Yes, the vaccine ended my season,” Goodwin said. “One thousand percent.”
The point guard then said someone from the Hawks organization called him while he was in the hospital to let him know a press release announcing his condition was on the horizon.
“‘We’re going to tell the press that your season’s over with,’” Goodwin recalled. “I’m like, ‘Damn. How? Like I don’t even, we don’t even know what it is.’ But it’s whatever. I’m not even going to get into all that, bruh. I still got love for the Hawks. Mad love for the Hawks.”
Goodwin also said he knew he would have had an impact on the team if he was still available to play down the stretch. In his two seasons with Atlanta, Goodwin averaged 5.5 points in 13 minutes per game through 81 games. Goodwin earned a full season contract with the Hawks for 2020-21 after breakout performances in the previous season, including a 19-point fourth quarter in a 102-95 comeback win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Jan. 22, 2020.
“It would have been way different,” Goodwin said. “We needed somebody to get in the paint, make some plays.
“I don’t know where I’m playing at this year. I’m not going to lie to y’all, I don’t know. (The Hawks) were just like, ‘Don’t say anything about it, don’t tell anybody. I’m like, ‘Bruh, what?’”
Goodwin, who turned 26 on Saturday, remained optimistic about the future of his playing career on the stream.
“I’ll be back on somebody’s team soon,” Goodwin said. “I don’t really know who yet.”
He did confirm the Boston Celtics, a franchise he recently worked out with, and Golden State Warriors, a team he declined to sign with, weren’t in the running for his services.
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