Moments before tipoff of the Oklahoma City Thunder game against the Utah Jazz, the Thunder’s head medical staffer Donnie Strack “came sprinting” to officials to tell them something, ESPN’s Royce Young reports.
Strack conferred with the officials for a few minutes before calling the head coaches over, Young said. Some players came over to ask what was going on. Eventually, the officials told players to go back to the locker rooms. Some players waved to fans as they exited the court.
“The Thunder PA announcer came on and said that they were waiting on confirmation from the league to start the game,” Young said.
.@royceyoung reports that the Thunder-Jazz game was seconds away from tipping off when the Thunder's head medical staffer sprinted onto the floor to talk to referees in Oklahoma City.
At that point, players and staff were sent back to their respective locker rooms. pic.twitter.com/WsSOU09kVP
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 12, 2020
There was no announcement or confirmation as to why the game was postponed, though Young said there is a belief it is due to the coronavirus.
“The belief is that it is related to the illnesses of the players involved in this game and the league could not confirm whether or not they could start the game because of that,” Young said.
Jazz center Rudy Gobert was scratched from the game late in the day due to illness and so was guard Emmanuel Mudiay.
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