NBA suspended with dose of irony

It started as a joke: Before leaving a post-practice interview session, Rudy Gobert touched all the audio recorders that were placed before him on a table, devices that reporters who cover the Utah Jazz were using during an availability with him on Monday before a game with the Detroit Pistons.

It isn't so funny now.

Gobert is now the NBA's Patient Zero for coronavirus after becoming the first player in the league to test positive, a person with knowledge of the situation told Associated Press.

The 7-foot-1 Frenchman is at the center of why the league has been shut down for the foreseeable future:

－Utah's game against Oklahoma City on Wednesday night was canceled and the Pistons are among five teams that have played the Jazz－and Gobert－since the start of March, the others being Boston, Toronto, New York and Cleveland.

－Gobert shared the court with 50 opposing players in those games, plus 15 referees.

－One of the refs was Courtney Kirkland, who was due to work the New Orleans-Sacramento game on Wednesday that got canceled because he had been on the court with Gobert two nights earlier, and who knows how many ballboys, stat-crew employees, security guards, attendants and others did as well.

－Then there's Gobert's own teammates and the Jazz coaches and staff. And everyone he's been on a plane with in recent days. Or shared a hotel elevator with. Or dined with. Or shook hands with. And so on, and so on.

"I'm sure I probably had contact with him," Detroit's Langston Galloway said.

The Pistons player added: "Staying focused on that moment of interaction with a lot of different people and knowing that at the end of the day you might have touched the ball, you might have interacted with a fan and just being (cautious) with that going forward."

The shutdown could cost teams well into the hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how long it lasts. Those teams that have faced Gobert in recent days will likely face some testing. And some of those Jazz reporters said they were getting tested for COVID-19, just in case.

"It's unprecedented," Pistons coach Dwane Casey said."I think it's the prudent thing to do. And what went on in Utah, I don't know all the information but that just shows you how fragile everything is right now."

This is the reality of the coronavirus, which was labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization on Wednesday, weeks after beginning its havoc-wreaking global run that has sickened well over 100,000 and killed more than 4,000.

Charlotte coach James Borrego said these are scary times in the NBA, and no one argued.

"They're all concerned and rightfully so," Casey said. "Everybody in our league should be concerned. I think everybody in our country right now, more than just basketball, is concerned. We all have to take care of ourselves and look out for our fellow man."

That's what Orlando's Evan Fournier did on Wednesday night.

Fournier, a French national teammate of Gobert's, reached out to him after news of the diagnosis and league-wide shutdown broke.

"Was just on the phone with Rudy," Fournier wrote. "He is doing good man. Lets not (panic) everyone. Love you all."

'Hiatus'

Announcing the shutdown, a league statement on Wednesday read: "The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight's schedule of games until further notice.

"The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic."

The positive test result, the NBA said, was reported shortly before the scheduled tip-off time for Utah's game at Oklahoma City on Wednesday night was called off.

Players were on the floor and tipoff was moments away when they were told to return to their locker rooms. About 30 minutes later, fans were told the game was postponed "due to unforeseen circumstances".

Those circumstances were the league's worst-case scenario for now－a player testing positive. A second person who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity said the league expects the shutdown to last a minimum of two weeks, but cautioned that time-frame is very fluid.

"It's a very serious time right now," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said."I think the league moved appropriately and prudently and we'll all just have to monitor the situation and see where it goes from here."

The Jazz released a statement saying a player－they did not identify Gobert－tested negative earlier on Wednesday for flu, strep throat and an upper respiratory infection. That player's symptoms diminished as the day went along, but the decision was made to test for COVID-19 anyway. That test came back with a preliminary positive result.

"The individual is currently in the care of health officials in Oklahoma City," the Jazz said, adding that updates would come as appropriate.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the WHO, which declared a pandemic on Wednesday, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In the Chinese mainland, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.

It has been a worldwide issue for several weeks. And now, it has hit the NBA.

"This is crazy," Cleveland forward Tristan Thompson said on Twitter.

Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego, speaking before his team's game at Miami, said "these are scary times".

Rapidly evolving times, as well. Around 7 pm, a source told AP that owners－who met by teleconference on Wednesday－were largely in support of a plan to play games in empty arenas on a short-term basis.

About an hour later, the Thunder-Jazz game was halted before tip-off. And about 90 minutes after that, the season was called off.

There are 259 games, roughly 21 percent of the schedule, left to play this season－and no one knows if, or when, things will resume.

"We believe in the leadership of the league," Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand said.

The shutdown is the latest major development in a season filled with hard challenges. The league lost as much as $400 million in revenue after a rift with China was started in October when Houston general manager Daryl Morey tweeted out support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. Former NBA commissioner David Stern died in January, the same month that Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash.

And now a pandemic that could prove very costly indeed, depending on how long the shutdown lasts.

Ap Via Xinhua