NEW YORK: The NBA has suspended the 2019-20 season Wednesday until further notice. As too the NBA G League.
The league took the measure following confirmation Wednesday that a player on the Utah Jazz team had preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The test result was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of Wednesday night’s game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Fortunately for the league, at the time the game was canceled, the affected player was not in the arena.
"The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic," an official statement released after the suspension of the season reads.
Earlier Wednesday, the NBA board of governors had met via teleconference to discuss the virus, the safety of those involved and proposed scenarios for dealing with the health threat, from staging regular season games without spectators in the arenas to shutting down temporarily.
The league announced in the afternoon that Golden State’s home game against Brooklyn Thursday night, in fact, would be played without permitting ticket holders into the Chase Center in San Francisco. But the events that scuttled the Jazz-Thunder game, and the ripple effects, prompted the league to invoke the hiatus.
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