The NBA has suspended the remainder of the regular season due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The announcement came after a confusing mid-game suspension of play between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA announced a player tested positive for coronavirus, and said it will now be indefinitely halting games following Wednesday night’s schedule.
“The NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19′ the league said in a statement. “The test result was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of tonight’s game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder.”
“At that time, tonight’s game was canceled. The affected player was not in the arena,” said the NBA in an official statement regarding the situation
The NBA clarified it would be suspending game play following the conclusion of the night’s schedule of games until further notice. The NBA told media that it would use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.
Oh my goodness. The National Basketball Association has suspended the remainder of their season. Here is the full statement from the #NBA pic.twitter.com/UXVotDdjMW
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) March 12, 2020
Adrian Wojnarowski reported Rudy Gobert was the player from the Jazz who tested positive very quickly. The center was an All Star for Utah in 2020.
The league had discussed playing games in empty arenas. It wasn’t a popular idea amongst fans, players or media. LeBron James had already spoken out against the league making that move.
Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry responded to reports games at the Chase Center in San Francisco would be played without fans after the mayor banned gatherings over 1,000 people.
“Everything about our routines is reliant upon that kind of game day energy. Pulling up to the arena, seeing fans outside of Chase walking around in all the Warrior jerseys, even energy in the building, you can feel it all the way through the locker room, through the tunnel,” Curry said
Clip from #ESPN of Mark Cuban reacting moments after the #NBA season was suspended pic.twitter.com/4eUAbp2DYt
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) March 12, 2020
“The only thing is try to have a conversation about how you raise your level of intensity from the jump because you don’t have that actual adrenaline rush of playing in front of 18,000 people like that,” the star player explained.
Most NBA teams had somewhere between 15 and 20 games remaining on their schedule. The regular season was set to end April 15th, as the playoffs would begin three days later.
The NCAA also said earlier in the day that all of its basketball tournament games would be played without fans.
The NCAA made a groundbreaking and controversial decision on Wednesday to hold its men's and women's basketball tournaments without fans#Business #College #Coronavirus #NCAA #News #Sports #SportsBiz https://t.co/Pwu4z862KT
— Midwest Sports Network (@MWSNsports) March 12, 2020
This article is comprised of information and media from espn.com, nba.com and the Athletic. For more pro, college and high school sports stories, like our page on Facebook.
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