Thunder-Jazz game postponed due to Rudy Gobert’s illness

Amidst coronavirus fears, Wednesday’s NBA game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz was delayed due to Rudy Gobert’s prior illness.

UPDATE: Gobert has tested positive for coronavirus and the NBA season has been suspended until further notice.

On Wednesday, the NBA held a conference call with its board of governors over the growing threat of novel coronavirus, and the general consensus was that games should continue to be played without fans in attendance in lieu of putting the season on hiatus.

All eyes quickly shifted to Oklahoma just a few hours later, when a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz was postponed to a later date due to concern over Rudy Gobert‘s prior illness.

This could quickly throw a wrench into the NBA’s plans to simply play out the rest of the season without fans in attendance, especially if the illness is in fact confirmed to be coronavirus or COVID-19, the disease it causes.

To this point, there has been no confirmation of what Gobert’s illness is, but the fact that the officials delayed the game and decided to await confirmation from the league as to whether they could continue the game is worrisome.

According to ESPN’s Royce Young, Thunder head medical staffer Donnie Strack grabbed all three officials and players were told to go back to their benches just before tipoff.

The scene was incredibly eerie and uneasy, according to reporters who were in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Thunder and Jazz players were instructed to return to their locker rooms while awaiting league confirmation the game could continue, and players waved at fans as they walked off the floor.

The PA announcer soon announced the game was postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances” and that “you are all safe.”

This situation comes just days after Gobert jokingly made a point of touching each reporters’ microphone and recorder on the way out of a shootaround session with the media, trying to make light of the coronavirus situation. It’s only pure speculation whether those incidents are related, but given what we saw on Wednesday evening, it’s becoming clear the NBA is ill-equipped to deal with this pandemic, and removing fans from the equation will only go so far.

On Wednesday alone, the NCAA announced its Mens and Womens basketball tournaments will be played without fans in attendance, and overseas, Italian soccer club Juventus announced one of its players, Daniele Rugani, had tested positive for coronavirus. On Tuesday, Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis was confirmed to have coronavirus as well, which is why a match between Arsenal and Manchester City was suspended, since multiple players met with him after a recent match against Olympiacos.

Even an ocean away, these were eye-opening moments that have many questioning where international soccer will go now that its first player and owner have been confirmed to have coronavirus.

What happens when that same thing happens to the NBA, even if Gobert’s illness doesn’t wind up being COVID-19? And how long will it be before the league is forced to go into lockdown before it can even do the right thing and go on a preventative hiatus? As soon as one player or coach tests positive for COVID-19, the entire league is immediately at risk.

To date, more than 115,000 cases (and 4,200 deaths) have been confirmed in more than 70 countries worldwide, including the United States, which has seen more than 1,000 affected Americans and 31 deaths. These numbers will only continue to rise as more cases are reported.

The World Health Organization declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Jan. 30 and countries have implemented curfews, travel bans and mandatory quarantines to help prevent its spread.

So far, the NBA had implemented temporary media protocol to restrict locker room access to players and essential team personnel only; the Golden State Warriors were going to play games without fans in attendance in compliance with the San Francisco Health Office’s ban of public gatherings of more than 1,000 people for the next two weeks; and the league had considered options like playing games without fans or moving games to NBA cities or neutral sites where coronavirus outbreaks have not been reported yet.

After Wednesday night’s concerning events, it feels like only a matter of time before more drastic precautionary measures are taken.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.