ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski – famous in sports circles for his accuracy and speed with breaking NBA news stories – has today announced that the NBA will suspend the season after a player tested positive to COVID-19.
Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert tested positive to the virus, which is thought to be the tipping point as to a season-suspension.
The league had previously prepared to play games in empty arenas to limit to spread of the outbreak.
The full statement from the NBA reads as follows;
“The NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19. 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 NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice. The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Previously, the Golden State Warriors had announced they’d play the rest of their home games this season in front of no fans. The San Jose Sharks of the NHL were set to follow suit.
The USA currently has 1322 confirmed cases of COVID-19. While this is significantly higher than Australia’s current tally of 127, Australia’s figure is much higher in terms of infected persons per million citizens.
There is no word as of now as to whether Australian sporting codes will follow suit.
astro
Roar Rookie
Yeah, lets ignore the advice from scientific experts who have spent their life studying infectious diseases, and just get on with things because we think we'll be fine...that always works out well!
Nick
Roar Guru
The feds can cancel it... all they needed to do was ban Italy last week and it would have been cancelled by default. It's now a farce with McLaren coming and getting infected.
Nick
Roar Guru
The fact that McLaren have now pulled out is no surprise. The odds that happening to a team were better than 50/50. Haas may also pull out.
JGK
Roar Guru
But no one is going to attend those anyway.
JGK
Roar Guru
The Feds can’t cancel the event but they could have prevented a couple of hundred people flying in from Europe’s Ground Zero. It’s no coincidence that Italy was closed off after the Ferrari team landed.
LeftRight
Guest
Stupid is as stupid does. Sports codes are now playing games in empty stadiums. Apparently, sports people don't contract coronavirus but spectators do! What a worldwide cockup - stock markets crashing, Europe locked off from the US, toilet paper hoarding - the list goes on & on! What we are seeing is a case study on how NOT to handle a situation.
Rossy
Roar Rookie
Crazy overreaction, panic has well and truly taken hold. If you are suspending the season now I can't see when it would resume, in a few weeks or months 10 times the people will have had the condition, so it won't get any better. When will they resume? Knee jerk to one player contracting it.
Nick
Roar Guru
Furthermore, there is nothing - nothing at all - that prevents Daniel Andrews holding this behind closed doors. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/motorsport/nothing-to-fear-in-f1-s-fantasy-world-20200310-p548r3.html
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Turn it up moose - are you really saying it's the PM's job to cancel individual sporting events? The GP is the Victorian State Government's event. Imagine the s-fight if Morrison arbitrarily cancelled it and the Vic govt went down the tubes for tens of millions in compensation. There is actually a lot of pressure building on them to cancel it, and with the number of visitors involved, some of them with symptoms, there's definitely an argument to cancel it. But take the left-right politics out of it - the decision is for Daniel Andrews to make.
Nick
Roar Guru
Well, thanks to ScoMO allowing half of the EU to travel to Melbourne for a car race, I'd say it's a certainty it will happen to the NRL.
Davico
Roar Pro
Can't see MLB opening day happening either. Realistically CA should cancel the ODI's planned for Friday and Sunday. Everyone is over the cricket season anyway!!
JGK
Roar Guru
Not surprising. EPL will follow suit shortly too. NRL and AFL can't be far behind.