Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker did not find out about the suspension of play due to the coronavirus pandemic via team officials. Nor did he find out by logging onto Twitter.
No, Booker was told the season was being suspended while playing the Call of Duty video game online.
Booker had been playing with a pair of professional streamers when the news broke, leaving him at a loss for words (via Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times):
As he was keeping up with the news, Booker started to play “Call of Duty: Warzone,” which had been released the day before, with his friends and professional streamers Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag and Dennis “Cloakzy” Lepore. Booker, who made his NBA All-Star game debut last month, found out he wouldn’t be playing basketball for the foreseeable future from “Nadeshot” and “Cloazky” before anyone from the team could contact him.
“I was trying to play at the same time as all of this was happening and getting updates on social media,” Booker said. “When they told me that the season was shut down, I couldn’t believe it. The world has never seen anything like this, which is why I reacted the way I did. That was my real-time reaction. I dropped a few curse words, which is not ideal, but I really couldn’t believe it.”
The clip below shows the Suns All-Star's live, “NSFW” reaction to the news.
.@DevinBook found out the NBA Season was suspended while playing #CallOfDuty #Warzone tonight!
This is my mental reminder to download Call of Duty Warzone when I get home!
— 𝙅𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧 (@JasonCarter03) March 12, 2020
Booker's reaction perfectly encapsulates the sheer shock value that seems to accompany every new statistic or update with respect to the global pandemic.
Clearly, this is an unprecedented time in sports and society at large.
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