Getty Rudy Gobert, Jazz center
Of all the major pro sports leagues in the U.S., the NBA always was going to be the most susceptible to the coronavirus outbreak. It’s a league based around body-to-body contact and over the course of a few possessions, it’s likely that all five guys on one team will have some kind of physical brush with all five players on the other team.
But much of the discussion around handling the rising outbreak of the virus here in America centered on what to do with the fans who arrive by the thousands on each game night. With municipalities affected by coronavirus around the country banning large gatherings, the NBA sought alternative plans to either play games without fans or to play on neutral courts where there was no outbreak.
On Wednesday, when it was revealed that a member of the Utah Jazz—believed to be center Rudy Gobert—tested positive for coronavirus, an entirely different angle to the problem came up. Sure, the league could protect fans by banning them from games. But it would be impossible to stop the spread of coronavirus from player-to-player, especially because it takes around five days between the contraction of the disease and the showing of symptoms.
The disease could be spread without the afflicted patient even knowing it. Such was the case with Gobert. Now the league had to worry about protecting players, not just fans. It was decided that the league needed to put off the rest of the season until the facts of the epidemic become clearer.
That Jazz Got Around the NBA in Five Days
This simple diagram from StatMuse shows the crux of the problem. It’s not just a matter of whom Gobert contacted—it’s the spread that might occur starting with everyone he might have touched and spreading to whomever those players might have touched, too.
All 30 NBA teams can be connected in just the last 5 days.
The NBA made the right decision to suspend this season.
That crystallizes things here in the midst of a tense week. The league has been trying to sort out a course of action on the coronavirus as it begins to spread here in the U.S. and NBA commissioner Adam Silver ultimately took on the responsibility for shutting down the season.
The league had, over the weekend, demanded that teams present contingency plans for coronavirus outbreaks in their regions, which it had planned to discuss over the course of this week. There had already been a conference call with the league and team doctors and, on Wednesday, there was a call with the Board of Governors.
‘I’m Concerned With My Family’
Nothing had been decided coming out of that call, but a decision on how to proceed was expected on Thursday. The possibility of playing games without fans—the Warriors had already agreed to do so for their game against the Nets on Thursday—appeared almost certain to be the main course of action under consideration by the NBA.
But keeping players healthy matters, too. For Pistons coach Dwane Casey, it’s crucial that the league shows proper concern for how players are feeling.
“They’re all concerned and rightfully so,” he said. “Everyone in our league should be concerned. But everybody in our country, more than just basketball, we all have families—I’m concerned with my family, my kids and so we all have to take care of ourselves and look out for our fellow man.”
READ MORE: Pistons Coach Dwane Casey on Coronavirus: ‘We’re Just Like Everyone Else’