The NBA has been through a lot over the last few years.
Like the rest of the world, the COVID pandemic completely shut the league down and altered how it operated for years.
Only now does it feel like things are getting back to normal.
It’s been a few years so some people have forgotten how COVID struck down the league seemingly in just minutes.
Donovan Mitchell on what happened after Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid… Jazz were stuck in the locker room for 9 hours after the game was canceled.
(Via @OldManAndThree) pic.twitter.com/MlyzuF1vdr
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) October 21, 2022
Back in March 2020, COVID overtook the NBA, shut it down, and changed everything forever.
Donovan Mitchell, then of the Utah Jazz, was at the center of it all.
He and his team were about to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder when it was revealed that Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the virus.
In a short amount of time, the league canceled the game, postponed the rest of the season, and left the Jazz in the middle of a wild situation.
Mitchell opened up about all of it on the Old Man & The Three podcast.
Hearing him recall everything that went down is fascinating because of his behind-the-scenes perspective that no one else had.
The Night The NBA Shut Down
Following Gobert’s diagnosis, the league postponed the rest of the season, not sure of what would happen or when games would commence again.
What followed was months of the entire world coming to a halt as the pandemic raged across the globe.
Eventually, the NBA would be one of the first industries to get back to work when it invited teams to the Orlando Bubble in July of 2020.
That one-of-a-kind conclusion to the season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the Finals before a crowd of just friends and family and empty arena seats.
It was an NBA season unlike any other and Mitchell got to experience it all firsthand.
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