Wednesday, March 11th will certainly go down in sports history as a truly crazy day. It started with all 4 professional sports leagues in the U.S. banning media in locker rooms. As the threat of COVID-19 increased, the NBA owners got together and decided to play regular season games for the foreseeable future without fans. This was accompanied by a similar plan for the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

However, the biggest news came later in the day. After confirming a case of the coronavirus in a player on the Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert, the owners decided to suspend the season indefinitely and that they would use a “hiatus” to determine the next actions for the season. There is a lot going on in that headline. Gobert, a former defensive player of the year and perennial all-star, tested positive. Although unlikely to encounter serious medical problems, due to what we know about the disease and the great shape his body is in, he could have spread it to many other players in the games he played recently.

The decision to suspend games is a big one, and one owner says that once league play continues, we could be seeing NBA games into August. This could seriously effect the season and momentum of some teams, and will certainly be remembered for a long time.

I asked NBA super fan, and LHS senior, Dante Wahba, about his thoughts on the subject.

“I think it’s bogus. Most of these guys are in great shape and probably won’t be effected by corona; play on!” said Wahba.

It will be interesting to see how the situation plays out, and how big of an effect the coronavirus will have on the sports world.