Jazz center Rudy Gobert has tested positive for coronavirus, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The NBA has confirmed in a press release that a Jazz player tested positive for COVID-19, though the league didn’t specifically name Gobert as that player. The test result was reported just before tip-off of tonight’s game between Utah and Oklahoma City, which was postponed.
The affected player – presumed to be Gobert – wasn’t in the arena at that time, according to the league’s statement. Gobert was never at the Chesapeake Energy Arena tonight, ESPN’s Royce Young confirms (Twitter link).
As a result of the coronavirus crisis, the NBA will suspend the season indefinitely following the conclusion of tonight’s games.
According to reports from Charania and Young (Twitter links), even though Gobert was initially ruled out for tonight’s game with an illness, he felt strong enough to play. The league wanted confirmation that he didn’t have coronavirus before he could be cleared to play, so he was tested before the game.
Once it was determined that Gobert had tested positive, the game was immediately postponed and players and staff returned to their respective locker rooms. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Jazz and Thunder players are currently being quarantined in the arena.
While it’s not clear exactly when Gobert contracted the virus, he’ll face criticism for making light of the situation on Monday by going out of his way to touch every microphone and recorder in front of him following his shootaround availability (Twitter link via Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune).
Depending on how long Gobert – or others – have had the virus, the ripple effect across the NBA could be massive. As Sam Amick of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), Utah has played the Raptors, Pistons, Celtics, and Knicks in the past eight days, so players from those teams seem like good bets to be tested as soon as possible.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow! Does that mean no jazz games for at least 14 days? I would imagine the whole team was exposed.
How about all games?
No kidding. That escalated fast. Wonder if they will try to do some version of the playoffs.
Some version of the playoffs? Maybe a best of seven Ball-Aid charity game of two all-star squads comprised of guys who test clean and agree to remain in quarantine until couple weeks after the final match?
Glad he touched all those mics and recorders on Monday poo pooing it
I bet he lives through it like it’s a normal flu, I remember when I was in college the swine flu was goin to kill us all…..we lived
Sure a 3 or 4% mortality rate still means those with the virus have pretty good odds of survival.
However if you don’t want to respect that tragic deaths do occur and are beyond devastating then you can probably just quietly smirk to yourself while people fret over how seriously to take the situation. You can laugh at death all you want but when it takes someone you love s**t gets real fast.
So you are okay with 1 out of every 25 NBA players just dying then? Everyone is just saying 3-4% mortality rate as if it is nothing. That’s low for cancer, but cancer is not exactly contagious either.
The difference is NBA players are healthy and very unlikely to be the population that would die from the virus. With that said, I agree with Neo for the most part. If we can prevent senseless death, we should.
As mentioned the rate for athletes is likely better than general population. The rate for large former athletes over 50 however, probably higher.
My comment was more in response to the people with the attitude this isn’t much to worry about. It is important to recognize the proportion of it, and also that even a small amount of risk is still a risk and potentially devastating. At the least, potentially devastating enough to motivate a change in habits to mitigate risk.
I understand where people resist changing their lives in response to an unknown amount of risk, but laughing measures off as unnecessary is senseless to the gravity of the situation. An overall 4% mortality rate with a fast spreading virus can kill off a significant amount of population. And the question becomes how many sweeps it takes to kill off the vulnerable. Imagine if one out of every 20 people over the age of 45 you know were dead before years end. It could be higher or lower for that segment of population. Is it worth stopping that from happening and at what cost to your regular routine?
Did he really do that ?
He really did.
No wonder why the Sixers played well tonight
Seriously though, this is quite a nightmare and wish Rudy Gobert nothing but the best.
This virus is unprecedented.
Its not unprecedented at all.
Even ebola didn’t even do this to the game
So yes, it is!
The ridiculous panic and hysteria is unprecedented
You watch too much Fox News
Yet nothing will happen to Gobert and will be healthy in less than two weeks. Completely ridiculous
Yet every player on every team the Jazz have played have been exposed. Along with every fan at every arena they played in along with every person that every fan at every arena came in contact with….so on and so forth has been exposed to the virus.
Is covid19 contagious even in its incubation period?
Yes it’s contagious during the incubation period which is why cases are just about doubling everyday
I hope Gobert feels like a fool after how immature he acted the other day about the virus.
Yeah real funny Rudy.
He licked the fking mike!,,,,,,karma
That’s some serious karma biting you in the butt……
He’s not even the most famous person who has it since Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have both been reported to have it over in Australia.
what does being the most famous matter???
Famous people getting makes it real for some people.
Because it means people have something in common when discussing an illness. Think about this, if a guy you went to 3rd grade with contracted AIDS in 1992, other than his immediate circle, very few people would care. But when Magic Johnson contracted it, everyone knew and thus everyone had an icebreaker for talking about it. There were some famous people that got it beforehand, but people usually it was excused as “they were gay or a drug user,” but Magic Johnson forced everyone to look at the crisis as something serious that could happen to anyone.
Man messing with my game. This is crazy. This was going to be best playoffs in a long time. Hope we still have them. Cancel season now. In three wks start the playoffs.
Outrageous, crazy, ridiculous… After that they will cancel the season every winter for the flu or the common cold.
Rudy you are great for touching those mics, respect bruh!
great for it? are you a psychopath? this os a global pandemic and it’s just starting. hope you dont endanger any vunerable individuals close to you with that mentality.
except people are sick for 3-6 weeks with the common cold not to mention fatality rates are much higher.
Unless you’re one of mind who thinks the herd was due for some thinning. Pretty irresponsible comments but this is the internet, so not surprised.
If Rudy cried about not being an AS. What will he do after his bumbling display of idiocy on Monday?
sledgehammer to da nuts!
Bad taste, but I’m doing it anyway.
Rudy Gobert deserves to win the Defensive Player of the Year for the third straight year. He single-handedly shut down the entire league. How can you beat that?
By it being done already, somewhere here. I bet no MSM headline writer even tries that, if he/she reads around, but good one.
I also had to,laugh at Magic J reptesenting “anyone”. He also represented the strapping, straight, and prime of life. I think he also represented only the first stage, no more, but we did not know about HIV stages then.
Indeed it appears covid19 also has a viral cohort-in-illness, SARS-CoV-2, which supposedly causes covid19. This would play into an engineered-disease theory, because the contagion would then be easier to schedule. Would it not, medico-man?
But I like theories, so there’s that.