The NBA announced a Jazz player (reports indicate its Rudy Gobert) had tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday night, leading to the cancellation of the Thunder-Jazz game in real-time and the suspension of the NBA regular season indefinitely starting on Thursday night after other games tonight have been completed.
Here's the full statement from the NBA:
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.
Gobert was listed as questionable for Wednesday's game due to illness before apparently finding out about his positive test result right before the opening tip based on how the last-minute cancellation unfolded at the arena.
BREAKING: After meeting with the Thunder and Jazz head coaches, NBA officials have instructed both teams to head back to the locker room. pic.twitter.com/6ngC0QBdEt
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) March 12, 2020
Only two days ago, he was poking fun at the new locker room restrictions by touching everyone's recorders and mic at a press conference.
So, this is what Rudy Gobert did on Monday... before testing positive for #Coronavirus.
pic.twitter.com/Upty5J8IDD
— David Wade (@davidwade) March 12, 2020