Editor’s Note: The second part of a two-day series in which The Athletic offers an inside, behind-the-scenes look at the pivotal moments that led to the NBA shutting down the league shortly after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Part 1 looked into the league’s decision and how it was executed. Now, what it was like for the Jazz during that week, as events unfolded around them.
The room sits on the second floor of Zions Bank Basketball Campus in Salt Lake City, the practice facility of the Utah Jazz, and it is occupied to some degree almost daily. It’s a room where ideas get tossed around, where trades have been executed and draft night war rooms have been set up. It’s a room where countless scenarios have been debated and basketball decisions made. On this day, it was occupied for 45 minutes, which seems like almost nothing. Twenty-four hours later, those 45 minutes were a prelude to one of the most significant events the Jazz may ever...
horseshoeoverlook on April 10th, 2020 at 14:48 UTC »
Excerpt:
As the Tuesday afternoon trip commenced, teammates noticed Gobert coughing and showing the effects of whatever ailed him. Some of them encouraged him to treat his illness, prodding Gobert to skip the conventional medicines and teas and head straight to the trainers for a coronavirus test, according to sources. Yet Gobert, who believed he felt good enough to play in the Wednesday game against the Thunder, clearly didn’t see his symptoms as severe enough to warrant such a reaction.
Added two more for context: Excerpt on Jazz' preparation for the coronavirus:As Snyder remembers it, the Jazz’s first meeting to discuss the coronavirus and COVID-19 was on a Feb. 25 practice day at home. The NBA’s first memo instructing teams to discuss the dangers of the disease didn’t come until March 1. The Jazz’s precautions, and the meetings, would only grow more comprehensive from there.
Another one:Not everybody would heed the advice, of course. As it turns out, that was also the day Gobert had his regrettable moment, touching the microphones of media members as he left his press conference after the morning shoot-around. It was a bad move, a practical joke gone wrong that was, in part, poking fun at the league’s new policy of keeping reporters six feet away from players during media interviews at that time.
But in the wake of all those COVID-19 lessons, it made it even harder to understand why he would do such a thing. What’s more, it wasn’t just the public who deemed his attitude toward the coronavirus irresponsible. There were members of his Jazz family who were disappointed by the message he was sending (Gobert, who has since apologized for his mistake on social media, declined to be interviewed for this story).
Adolf_Hitsblunt on April 10th, 2020 at 14:26 UTC »
There has to be more to it than we know (of course there is) but if Gobert getting Mitchell sick was a big factor then this could go down as one of the weirdest reasons all-star teammates have had chemistry issues.
r23po_ on April 10th, 2020 at 14:13 UTC »
It’s gonna be funny if this is the 7 foot European that the warriors actually end up with lol.