6:05 PM
The NBA didn't have health and safety protocols when Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The league was shut down.
The Utah Jazz center might miss a few days.
When Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, the night that the NBA shut down for four months and ultimately decided to finish its season inside, he was not on the virus-related protocols list.
He won't be in Toronto for Utah's game. Most players who enter the protocols are out for at least a week, so it is not clear how long he will be out.
The Utah team said Gobert was sick and wouldn't play in the win at Denver. The Jazz said Gobert took two rapid tests that came back negative. The team said that Gobert was positive for the virus again after the test was processed overnight.
Gobert is the second Jazz player on the protocols list. Utah entered the week as the only NBA team that didn't have a player in protocols this season, but that streak ended when Ingles was added to that list on Tuesday.
On March 11, 2020, Gobert was dealing with flu-like symptoms when the Jazz were in Oklahoma City. The Jazz and the NBA learned of his positive test just moments before the game against the Thunder was to start. The season was suspended after that game was called.
The sports landscape hasn't been the same since.
The last few weeks in the NBA have seen most teams dealing with an outbreak; 11 games have been postponed, and a dozen head coaches, countless other staffers, and about one-third of the league's referees have been out of work because of the virus.
The strain that teams are under has lessened recently. The number of players in the protocols fell from 125 to 56 by Thursday evening.
There were more players who saw game time in December than in any other season in league history, because so many hardship signings were needed to fill rosters, and so many have been in the protocols already this season. The previous season record was 540.
