NBA Postpones Season, Prompting Chaotic Day of Cancellations

The National Basketball Association announced March 11, that the remainder of the season has been suspended indefinitely following the news that Utah Jazz Forward Rudy Gobert has tested positive for Covid-19.

As first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the NBA has suspended all games. Players for the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder, who were preparing to tip off in Oklahoma City when news of Golbert’s positive test broke, are being quarantined at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.

While players were quarantined at the arena, Donovan Mitchell, a teammate of Golbert’s, has tested positive for the coronavirus.

NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has said in a letter to fans the league plans to resume the season when the spread of the virus subsides.

Following the announcement by the NBA, the NCAA has canceled the men’s and women’s national basketball championship, AHL and NHL hockey leagues have suspended the remainder of their seasons, MLB has suspended the remainder of Spring Training and postponed the start of the season at least two week.

Additionally the NFL has canceled its annual owners’ meeting, after some push back from officials and fans the PGA will cancel all events until April 5 after initially planning to continue without fans present, NASCAR has postponed the next two races, and ATP tour is suspending play for six weeks.

Additionally the Horizon League, the conference UWM is a part of, as well as many others within the NCAA announced cancellations of spring sports seasons, Disneyland is shutting down, WIAA has canceled spring tournaments, and events planned at the Wisconsin Convention Center District are being canceled.

Following the NBA season suspension, Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, announced plans to financially support arena workers for the Mavericks who would be affected by the loss of income.

At a local level, union technicians are facing loss income as a result of sporting events and conventions being canceled.

“I’ve lost 13 days of work in the next three weeks,” freelance technician Chad Wuttke tells Media Milwaukee. “Five days of [this weekend’s basketball] tournament, two NBA [games], and five MLB.”

The NCAA has announced that spring sport athletes will have an extra year of eligibility as a result of their seasons being canceled.

“I haven’t had time to think about [professional sports] actually,” said Wuttke. I feel bad for these high school and college kids who played an entire regular season only to have their season and, in some cases, careers cut short with only the finals and tournaments to go.”

All situations are being considered fluid with no league canceling events. Each professional sports league has merely postponed seasons until such time that playing would be safe.

Colligate and high school seasons and tournaments have been outright canceled with no plans to reschedule if the opportunity arises.

There is currently no word on how these cancellations will affect summer leagues, or summer events, such as the Democratic National Convention or Summerfest.