The NBA's season came to a screeching halt on Wednesday night when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Jazz game against the Oklahoma City Thunder was canceled shortly before tip-off when Gobert tested positive. Gobert was not at the arena on Wednesday. Soon after the positive test was revealed, the NBA suspended the remainder of the season after Wednesday night's games.
The next question is just how many NBA players will need to be quarantined in the coming days and weeks.
A league source told Insider's Scott Davis that a player who tests positive for the virus would need to be quarantined for 14 days along with all his teammates. Presumably, this would also extend to other teams and people who came into contact with Gobert in the days leading up to his positive test.
In the ten days before Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, the Jazz faced the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and New York Knicks. According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, players from those teams were told to self-quarantine.
Presumably, coaches and staff members on those teams would also need to be quarantined for two weeks.
Including the Jazz, one-fifth (20%) of the league is already facing some level of quarantine.
Also, one of the officials who worked the Jazz-Raptors game on Monday was scheduled to work the game on Wednesday between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings. That game was canceled, but it is unclear if those two teams would also need to be quarantined.
ESPN's Royce Young, who was at Thunder's arena on Wednesday when the game was called off, explained just how the issue could spread.
"I'm watching all these players warm up pregame. These were all the same guys that were on the same flight as Rudy Gobert coming to the game," Young said. "And you just kind of watch everything unfold pregame. Now, Gobert didn't come out to warm up, because, again, he was never at the arena. But you look at how across the league — it's not just this arena — there's 34 players that Rudy Gobert has technically come in contact from three different teams — the Celtics, Pistons, and Raptors.
"So, this thing is complicated in a number of different ways. Everybody's feeling it in this arena. I watched ball boys rebounding for NBA players. They're touching the ball, they're passing it back to them. Watching all the people in the arena. There's players sitting over off to the side watching film pregame, the same spot where fans will then later take their seats. It's inevitable that you're going to touch the same spaces as everybody else."
There are more pressing issues with coronavirus at this point, and stopping the spread is of utmost importance. But from a sports perspective, this was the nightmare scenario for all leagues. It only takes one positive test to shut an entire league down, with or without fans in attendance.
- Read more:
- NBA suspends its season after Ruby Gobert tests positive for coronavirus
- NBA player tests positive for coronavirus just days after joking about making others sick by touching a bunch of microphones during a press conference
- Mark Cuban looked as stunned as every NBA fan the moment he found out the season had been suspended and said the situation felt like a movie
