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No matter who you are, there’s no telling how or when you might get some piece of major news—like, for example, news that your employer has postponed your work for an indeterminate amount of time because of the onset of a global pandemic.
If you’re Phoenix Suns All-Star guard Devin Booker, you just might find out while you’re in the middle of a game of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare being livestreamed on Twitch. In fact, that’s just what happened.
Booker’s reaction was incredulous and not quite safe for work. “What the f—?” Booker said. “Broooo …”
Credit to Booker, though. Even as he found out that the season was suspended, he continued on with the game, never leaving his post or fully removing his headphones.
A Tense Week and a Locker-Room Outbreak
In the midst of a tense week trying to sort out a course of action on the coronavirus as it begins to spread here in the U.S., NBA commissioner Adam Silver ultimately took on the responsibility for shutting down the season. That decision came when it was revealed that a player with the Utah Jazz—reportedly center Rudy Gobert—had tested positive for coronavirus, forcing the postponement of the scheduled Jazz-Thunder game.
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.
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 the diagnosis of a player quickly changed the league’s calculus. While the focus had been on keeping the virus from circulating among large crowds, that focus shifted toward keeping players and their families safe.
Booker Having a Breakout Year
The Suns announced that the season would be postponed at about 11 p.m. ET in a tweet:
Booker got the news slightly before that. It is a disappointing interruption to what has been a breakthrough season for him, one in which he finally earned an All-Star spot and won plaudits for his overall play. The Suns were not in position to land a playoff spot but the stereotype of Booker as a good player who only thrives on bad teams was changing.
He averaged 26.1 points and 6.6 assists, with 4.2 rebounds this season. Booker has been in a bit of a post All-Star slump—he is shooting only 43.8 percent and averaging 24.5 points—but had made up for it by boosting his passing numbers (7.9 assists per game) over the past 10 games.
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