NBA to suspend season after coronavirus diagnosis for player, reportedly Rudy Gobert

Tom Gatto

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NBA to suspend season after coronavirus diagnosis for player, reportedly Rudy Gobert image

The NBA is suspending play indefinitely beginning Thursday after a player, reportedly the Jazz's Rudy Gobert, tested positive for COVID-19, or coronavirus.

The league made the announcement after the Jazz's game vs. the Thunder on Wednesday in Oklahoma City was postponed shortly after scheduled tipoff. It said that a Jazz player had tested positive for COVID-19.

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"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 league said in a statement.

Shams Charania of Stadium reported that Gobert was the player who tested positive. 

Game officials delayed the Jazz-Thunder game moments before it was to start after medical personnel rushed to the court to speak with them, ESPN's Royce Young reported.

The postponement announcement was made inside Chesapeake Energy Arena about 8:40 p.m. ET.

The Thunder television crew had reported that there were concerns over the health of Gobert and teammate Emmanuel Mudiay, but especially Gobert. Both players had been listed as questionable for the game because of illness. Young reported that Gobert was ready to play had he not tested positive for COVID-19.

Tony Jones, who covers the Jazz for The Athletic, and ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that both teams were under quarantine in the arena after the postponement.

Wojnarowski later reported that Jazz remained quarantined after the Thunder had left the arena.

Young later reported that Jazz personnel were tested by Oklahoma health officials for the virus and that tests would be known overnight. The team had not been cleared to fly back to Salt Lake City, Young and Wojnarowski reported, so it was looking into chartering buses to get home once it's able to travel. The estimated driving time between Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City is 17 1/2 hours.   

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Gobert's reported diagnosis will be a concern to media who covered him this week. He touched recording devices after a session with them in a fit of defiance.

Sources told ESPN's Brian Windhorst late Wednesday that players on the five teams that played the Jazz in the past 10 days have been asked to self-quarantine: The Raptors, Pistons, Celtics, Knicks and Cavaliers. Sources told Charania that the Raptors have told players to self-quarantine for the next 14 days.

As of Wednesday, there have been more than 1,300 cases of coronavirus and 38 deaths in the United States.

Globally, more than 126,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and 4,633 have died.

This article has been updated. Material from Omnisport was used in this report.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.