HIV positive player removed during league basketball game

During the second half of a rec league playoff game, an official called time out and sent both basketball teams to their bench.

That’s when 21-year-old Dakota Basinger was escorted from the court by a Kissimmee, Florida city employee and asked if he was HIV positive.

When Basinger said yes, he was told he could no longer play in the league.

"I feel humiliated and discriminated against," Basinger told the Orlando Sentinel. "I felt horrible walking out of that gym."

Yesterday, city spokesperson Arin Thrower apologized, saying the employee "acted independently and without supervisor approval."

"The city has taken corrective action to ensure this does not happen in the future.” Thrower added

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Basinger’s mother was at the game and became very upset. “We're not back in the '80s,” she began. “You cannot catch this from casual contact, from playing basketball, or sweat, or spit, or anything like that.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is spread by blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk.

The CDC website explains, “these fluids must come in contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or be directly injected into the bloodstream from a needle for transmission to possibly occur."

But it goes on to say “contact between broken skin, wounds, or mucous membranes and HIV-infected blood" may also spread the virus, but such reports are "extremely rare."

One of Basinger’s teammates, Gustavo Delamaza, said he knew about the HIV and it "didn't really bother me at all.”

The city has since said Basinger will be allowed to play when the league schedule resumes.

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