The NBA suspended its season after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus right before tipoff against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
There’s never been a night like this one in the NBA. After a conference call with team owners and governors to discuss plans of action on how to deal with the growing coronavirus situation, the league was leaning towards playing games in closed arenas with no fans rather than the less appealing option; a hiatus.
Throughout the day, it was announced that the Golden State Warriors would play in an empty Chase Center against the Brooklyn Nets after the city of San Francisco banned gatherings over 1,000 people, and it seemed that more major metropolitan centers would follow suit and make the NBA’s decision for it. With minimal decisions to make after local governments forced their hand, the league could merely relent and do as they demand.
A decision was expected sometime Thursday on just how the league would choose to proceed, and Wednesday night’s games began as normal, although with a grim feeling of unease looming in all six NBA arenas with games planned. Was it to be the last night of NBA action in front of spectators in the 2019-20 season?
Things took a bizarre and ugly twist shortly before the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were about to tip off. Jazz center Rudy Gobert and guard Emmanuel Mudiay were both out with illness (which is a loaded word these days after years of being an innocuously-coded term for “rest”), but Gobert’s illness was severe enough to warrant a test for the coronavirus.
Gobert’s test came back just before tip and both teams were pulled off the floor and the NBA was consulted for instructions on how to proceed. More than half an hour after the game was scheduled to start, the Thunder PA announcer informed the crowd that the game was postponed, instructing everybody to leave but informing them that they were safe.
Nothing would make me feel less safe than a PA announcer repeating “you are all safe.” pic.twitter.com/0LyOtw0VRA
— Shawn Langlois (@slangwise) March 12, 2020
Ominous.
Shortly thereafter, Shams Charania of The Athletic broke the news: Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.
Utah Jazz All-Star Rudy Gobert has tested positive for coronavirus, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 12, 2020
Sources say Gobert is feeling good, strong and stable — and was feeling strong enough to play tonight.
Assuming a two-week quarantine period for players who came into contact with an infected player, any team with a player who tests positive should expect to be taken out of action for at least a couple of weeks. Given the interconnected nature of the league and its teams, one player is enough to destabilize the whole network.
Considering this, Gobert’s positive test was the point of no return and four minutes after Charania announced the results, he also announced that the NBA had suspended its season.
The NBA has suspended its season.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 12, 2020
We don’t know just what that means, and while the NBA expects to continue its season eventually on a truncated schedule, the NBA also expected to finish its season out in its entirety just a few hours ago.
We don’t know how long the coronavirus crisis will continue or be the most dominant public safety concern in North America and in fact the world. The NBA would likely love to back things up a month and just go into the playoffs with current standings, or get a handful of games in for each team before the playoffs or even just resume the season with an accelerated schedule when the all-clear is given.
There’s no way to know how long things will take or what the world itself will look like when this is done, but the NBA would like to get back in action as quickly as is safe and possible.
We’re in the most uncharted of waters as things stand. The Jazz are under quarantine in Oklahoma City and were cleared to leave the Chesapeake Energy Center well after midnight Central Time. As we know now, coronavirus tests can take days. The New Orleans Pelicans refused to play a game officiated by Courtney Kirkland, who officiated Monday night between the Jazz and Toronto Raptors, and the league postponed their game against the Sacramento Kings.
This is something we’ve never seen before, so we’ll have to watch closely as things develop, but one thing is certain: The NBA is not the entity calling the shots here and will have to deal with what this pandemic allows.
For more information about the coronavirus and COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.