The first time that Rudy Gobert examined positive for COVID-19, the NBA didn’t even have well being and security protocols. It shut down the league as an alternative.
This time, the Utah Jazz middle may simply miss just a few days.
Gobert has examined positive for COVID-19 and was positioned Thursday on the virus-related protocols listing — one thing that didn’t even exist when he examined positive for the virus on March 11, 2020, the night time that the NBA shut down for greater than 4 months and finally determined to complete its season inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida.
He has been dominated out for Utah’s recreation Friday in Toronto. It shouldn’t be clear how lengthy he will likely be sidelined; sometimes, even with shorter return-to-play guidelines in place now than what had been the case earlier this season, most gamers who enter the protocols are out for no less than per week.
Gobert didn’t play in Utah’s win at Denver on Wednesday night time, with the staff citing sickness as the rationale. The Jazz mentioned Gobert took two speedy tests that day, each of which got here again adverse.
But a PCR check, processed in a single day, got here again Thursday with Gobert positive for the virus once more, the staff mentioned.
Gobert turns into the second Jazz participant on the protocols listing, becoming a member of Joe Ingles. Utah entered the week as the one NBA staff to not have a participant in protocols this season, a streak that ended when Ingles was added to that listing on Tuesday.
That recreation was known as, and about 90 minutes later, the 2019-20 season was suspended. The NBA — and the whole sports activities panorama — hasn’t been the identical since.
The previous few weeks within the NBA have seen most groups coping with outbreaks; 11 video games have been postponed, whereas a dozen head coaches, numerous different staffers and about one-third of the league’s referees have been sidelined by virus points.
But current days have lessened the pressure that groups are beneath. There have been about 125 gamers within the protocols halfway by final week, and that quantity was all the way down to 56 by Thursday night.
About 300 gamers have been within the protocols already this season within the NBA, and since so many hardship signings have been wanted by groups to fill depleted rosters there have been extra gamers who noticed recreation time in December alone — 544 — than in every other earlier full season in league historical past. The earlier single-season file was 540, set final season.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday was added to the protocols listing Thursday and was dominated out Friday night time at Brooklyn. Holiday missed 10 video games final season after testing positive for COVID-19.
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