NBA Suspends Season After Rudy Gobert Of Utah Jazz Tests Positive For Coronavirus
(CBS) -- The National Basketball Association has suspended the season until further notice after a player tested positive for COVID-19.
Statement:
NEW YORK, March 11, 2020 – The NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19. The test result was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of tonight's game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. At that time, tonight's game was canceled. The affected player was not in the arena.
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 Chicago Bulls were scheduled to play in Orlando on Thursday. Earlier today, some of the players talked about what it would be like to play in an empty arena, if fans were banned. Now, their whole season is at risk. The NCAA today announced that tournament games would be played with only players and essential personnel.
Earlier this week, the player who tested for COVID-19, Rudy Gobert, was mocking the virus, touching microphones at a news conference.
The NBA's regular season was scheduled to end on April 15.
Sports analyst Marc Ganis told CBS 2's Jermont Terry that the league made the right move. "If you got one player who tested positive it would not take very much for the whole team and other players and personnel to have been infected."
It also brings the outbreak closer to Americans.
"For most it's been something that affected someone in the another part of the country or world. Now this affects tens of millions of people in very personal way directly," he said.
Meanwhile, the NHL is still considering its next steps after the NBA's announcement.
The impact goes well beyond fans missing out on the games, teams losing ticket revenue and television losing ratings. The economic impact trickles down, Ganis said.
"You don't need anyone to sell concessions because there's nobody sell to," he said. "You don't need ticket takers because there's no tickets to take and the results have tremendous trickle down effect."
