NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN's Rachel Nichols that the NBA would have likely kept playing games if Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert didn't get tested for COVID-19.
Gobert jokingly touched a bunch of reporters' mics as a joke and got sick. The Jazz All-Star wound up getting the coronavirus and the NBA suspended the season indefinitely:
Adam Silver says if Rudy Gobert hadn't been tested, NBA likely would have kept playing. He says if NBA didn't act as soon as it did, others might not have followed the way that they did.
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) March 18, 2020
Jazz star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell has the virus as well, but he and Gobert are the only Jazz players who contracted it.
Detroit Pistons center Christian Wood and Brooklyn Nets superstar small forward Kevin Durant have the virus, too. Three other Nets players have COVID-19, but we don't know who they are.
Both Mitchell and Durant are asymptomatic.
Gobert took to Instagram to apologize for his actions. Mitchell admitted it took him time to forgive Gobert for what he did. The All-Star guard, however, didn't reveal during his interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America if he's spoken to Gobert.
The Jazz must be hoping time will heal this beef, if there even is one between Mitchell and Gobert. The two All-Stars were very close teammates before this all went down. Before the NBA suspended play, the Jazz were in the fourth spot in the Western Conference standings with a record of 41-23.
Mitchell is averaging 24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists on the season for the Jazz, while Gobert is putting up 15.1 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.
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