Tag: Utah Jazz

Pelicans refused to take floor due to ref Courtney Kirkland’s contact with Rudy Gobert

After finding out of the contact between referee Courtney Kirkland and Rudy Gobert, the Pelicans refused to take the floor on Wednesday.

After the NBA announced the league’s season would be suspended indefinitely, the Pelicans and Kings were set to be the final game prior to that suspension with the game set to still take place in Sacramento on Wednesday night.

While few questioned why games currently in progress weren’t stopped, nearly everyone questioned why the Pelicans-Kings game was still taking place with nearly an hour between the announcement from the league and the planned start time of 10:30 Eastern.

However, extenuating circumstances led to a much different scenario playing out. Referee Courtney Kirkland recently officiated a game with the Utah Jazz in which Rudy Gobert played. As his contact with Gobert became more public, the Pelicans grew warier of taking the court.

On Sportscenter, ESPN writer Andrew Lopez talked about how the situation played out for New Orleans.

“I was near NBA and Pelicans officials at that time the exact release came out. As soon as that happened, the indication immediately from the Pelicans and the Kings was the game was going to be played. It wasn’t until later on that the issue with the referee came up that people started to figure out ‘Hey, maybe we shouldn’t play this game.’ The Pelicans started to figure out ‘We don’t really want to go on the court.’ It wasn’t until then. Up until that point, the plan was for them to play this game.”

The game would eventually be called off, though not before a confusing moment involving Lonzo Ball taking the court before being ushered off of it by teammate Brandon Ingram.

After the game, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported on a Pelican source’s thoughts on the game on the night.

In the end, the right call was made to not play the game and to, instead, send the players home and avoid any more issues.

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WATCH: Lonzo Ball takes court for warm-ups, escorted off after Pelicans-Kings postponement

Amid all the confusion as the league debated postponing Wednesdays Pelicans-Kings game, Lonzo Ball took the court for a brief warm-up.

With the league in a state of flux on Wednesday night, there was no surer example of the uncertainty of the NBA than the Kings-Pelicans game on Wednesday evening.

Roughly an hour before tip-off nearly simultaneously, a report came out that Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the Coronavirus and minutes later the league announced it had suspended the season indefinitely.

Initially, the Kings and Pelicans, the final game on the schedule for Wednesday night, was set to still tip-off as the final game of the night and likely for multiple weeks. But as news began to surface that Courtney Kirkland, one of the referees scheduled to officiate Wednesday’s game, had also recently officiated a Jazz game in which Gobert played in.

The Pelicans took a stand and chose not to take the floor and play the game and the league eventually obliged, suspending the game.

However, there was clear indecision before the game was postponed as the Kings were on the floor warming up as New Orleans remained in the locker room. With the status of the game still in the air, Lonzo Ball took the court looking to get up shots either as a pregame warm-up or as a workout in lieu of the scheduled game.

Ball took the floor as the public announcer informed the fans of the cancellation. With the game over and the situation still unstable, Ball was quickly escorted off the floor by teammate Brandon Ingram.

As noted by Christian Clark of NOLA.com, the Pelicans quickly left the locker room and planned on heading back to New Orleans on Wednesday night.

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Pelicans-Kings game to be final NBA game as league suspends season

The Kings-Pelicans figures to be one of the final games of the season for an indefinite time as the NBA suspended the season on Wednesday.

The Pelicans-Kings game scheduled for Wednesday evening will likely be the final game for an indefinite time as the NBA suspended the season following the night’s games. The move came after Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with the Coronavirus.

The diagnosis came after the Thunder-Jazz game was abruptly stopped seconds before tip-off by an Oklahoma City team doctor. Within minutes of the game being abandoned, The Athletic’s Shams Charania tweeted that Gobert had tested positive for the virus.

A league-wide statement was nearly immediately released notifying the public that the league would be suspended indefinitely. On ESPN, Adrian Wojnarowski gave further detail that the league would finish the games scheduled for Wednesday, including the Sacramento Kings against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Given the schedule on Wednesday, the Pelicans-Kings game will be the final NBA game for an indefinite time and will likely be one of the final basketball games and sporting events period as other professional sports leagues and the NCAA will potentially follow suit.

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NBA suspends season after Gobert tests positive for coronavirus

The NBA season is on hiatus after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested preliminarily positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The NBA is suspending its 2019-20 season indefinitely after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested presumptive positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The season will be suspended after Wednesday, meaning Thursday’s planned meeting between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers will not be played. It is not known when games will resume, or what the schedule might look like once that occurs.

The NBA’s statement reads:

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 tipoff 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.

According to numerous reports, that player is Gobert, who was named last month to the NBA’s 2020 All-Star Game. On Feb. 22, Gobert then played 34 minutes in a loss to the Rockets in Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says symptoms typically appear two to 14 days after exposure. As a result, Gobert appears unlikely to have had the virus at that time.

Earlier reports suggested that most NBA teams (including the Rockets) preferred for games to be played in empty arenas without fans, but that assessment apparently changed when one of the league’s marquee players tested positive.

The Rockets (40-24) will enter the hiatus tied with the Thunder for the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Both teams are a game behind the Jazz (41-23) for the No. 4 spot, which would mean home-court advantage in at least one round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.

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The NBA suspends season after Rudy Gobert tests positive for coronavirus, Twitter reacts

The NBA season has been suspended.

The NBA has decided to suspend the season due to the coronavirus in a decision that came just moments after the Utah Jazz-Oklahoma City Thunder game was called off right before tipoff on Thursday night.

The news was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

This is a stunning move that happened just hours after the NCAA announced no fans would be allowed to attend NCAA Tournament games. And it’s all happening as the sports world tries its best to react to a pandemic that has affected the entire world.

This was announced after it was revealed that Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert had tested positive for coronavirus.

Wojnarowski made the NBA’s news public with a simple but shocking tweet tonight:

He added:

The NBA made it official:

The Gobert news was shocking and will likely have an even bigger impact on things:

The sports world reacted:

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NBA suspends season after player tests positive for coronavirus

According to reports from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.

In the rapidly changing world during the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA announced a sudden and sweeping measure late Wednesday night that they will suspend the current season after a player tested positive for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Utah Jazz star center Rudy Gobert was the player who tested positive for the coronavirus. The game that Gobert and his Jazz were supposed to play in against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night was called off just minutes before it was supposed to start. According to Tony Jones of The Athletic, both teams are still quarantined in their locker rooms.

It’s unclear how the NBA will proceed, but it’s clear for now that the league will be suspended until further notice. President Donald Trump announced a 30-day flight ban for the European Union on Wednesday night. Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic.

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Report: Thunder head doctor ran to officials moments before tipoff vs. Jazz

ESPN’s Royce Young reported that the Oklahoma City Thunder head trainer ran over to officials moments before the game against the Utah Jazz was set to start.

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.

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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The Jazz-Thunder game got called off right before tipoff and fans weren’t happy

Rudy Gobart’s illness led to a stunning postponement.

The Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were about to start their game tonight in OKC when suddenly things took an uncertain turn with the refs instructing both teams to return to their respective locker rooms.

And then… everyone waited to find out what the heck was going on.

After a good 30 minutes or so the official word came down that the game would be postponed and played at a later date.

This stems from Jazz star Rudy Gobert being ruled out earlier in the day due to illness. With the coronavirus becoming an official pandemic on Wednesday, it appears that the players for both teams weren’t sure if they should play tonight’s game and this move led to everyone waiting to hear from the NBA if he game should go on or not.

Fans were not happy once the announcement was made:

Again, this all unfolded right before tipoff in what was a wild scene:

 

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Thunder, Jazz game postponed and players were sent back to locker room

The start of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz game was postponed after players were sent back to the locker room pregame.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had a game scheduled against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night. But it was postponed after players and officials were sent back to the locker room shortly before the opening tipoff.

Initially, the game was delayed. During that time, the Thunder broadcast team said that officials were “trying to get league confirmation whether or not this game will continue due to some illnesses with some players.”

The P.A. announcer in the arena made it clear that everyone was “safe” but the concern was big enough to postpone the game.

The reason remains unclear but it is obviously worth mentioning that throughout the week, sports teams and leagues around the world have announced policy changes in an effort to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.

For example, the Golden State Warriors announced no fans would be allowed in the arena when they host the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday.

NCAA president Mark Emmert, meanwhile, announced fans would be barred from attending NCAA Tournament basketball games.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Jazz-Thunder game postponed to a later date just before tip-off

The NBA postponed the game after players from both teams and the referees left the court.

In a moment that could potentially shake the NBA in a way that produces immediate change sooner than anybody thought, Wednesday night’s game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City was called off mere moments before the game was about to tip-off. As the league is reportedly discussing multiple scenarios, a game has already been postponed due to scares about the novel coronavirus.

After about a 15-to-20 minute time where players, coaches, and officials left the floor, the public address announcer in Oklahoma City announced that the game was to be postponed to a later date.

Moments ago on ESPN,  Royce Young told Scott Van Pelt that the Oklahoma City Thunder’s team doctor sprinted onto the court moments before tip-off before the game was stopped and eventually postponed. And while there have been no confirmed reports from the league, there is a belief that players on one of the two teams may be sick.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported just over an hour ago that the NBA was leaning towards playing games in empty stadiums, but the events of the past hour may force the league to enact even more drastic changes in the immediate future.

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