How the NBA Responded to Their Sudden Shutdown
TikTok’s, NBA 2K, and every way the NBA adjusted to their indefinite suspension
Disclaimer: This piece is not intended to inform the actions of anybody who is in quarantine/isolation. There is no medical advice within this piece, only stories of the NBA shutdown and athletes on social media.
WHILE THERE WAS still a sense of normalcy in the NBA, despite the rising outbreak of COVID-19, Rudy Gobert decided to make a joke. Gobert, who dealt with mild symptoms of illness in the week before the NBA’s shutdown, made a show of his fearlessness towards the disease.
As he fulfilled his obligations to the media following the Utah Jazz’s shootaround, Gobert made a point of touching every microphone in the room before exiting towards his locker room — to the delight of many media members in attendance.
Just two nights later, before a Wednesday matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Jazz ruled Gobert out of the game for a reason which was described as “illness.” But it was what happened behind closed doors that created an unprecedented shift in the NBA world.
At an Oklahoma City hotel, unknown to 29 other teams and the country as a whole, Gobert and the Jazz became concerned. His symptoms were closely aligned to those associated with Covid-19. Also, the Jazz tested Gobert for influenza, upper respiratory infection and strep throat. Gobert tested negative for each of those ailments.
Soon, Utah officials contacted local health professionals in Oklahoma City and an exclusive group of league officials. The tension would only grow as Gobert and the Jazz had to wait four to six hours for the results of the test.
Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, and the respective players on the Oklahoma City Thunder started warming up and were ready for tip-off. Basketballs went careening all of the court as the two sides prepared for a game with serious playoff implications in the Western Conference.
But, minutes before the tipoff, Utah’s general manager, Dennis Lindsey, received a call with pressing news: Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had a new, pressing issue he had to solve.
Quickly, they came up with a decision.
The players, still in their uniforms, were sent to their locker room. The fans, the nearly twenty-thousand people inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, were directed towards the exits. And the NBA season was officially put on hold.
“This was a split-second decision,” Silver said, when reflecting on the frantic night in downtown Oklahoma City. Soon, other teams outside of Oklahoma began to close their doors, and the feeling of anxiety and worry began to engulf the league.
The plans to have teams play games in empty arenas were scrapped; teams now set-out to quarantine and administer tests for the Coronavirus.
And that leaves us here, where every NBA player is left to make the most of their new life in their homes, trying, like the rest of us, to establish normalcy in a time of anxiety and upheaval.
AMID THE OVERWHELMING anxiety and fear that took over the NBA, a few incredibly mindful individuals attempted to make the best out of what was quickly becoming a fearful situation. Among them was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who’s shocked reaction to the news of the NBA’s suspension quickly went viral.
By the end of the night, however, Cuban collected his emotions and put out a heartwarming announcement. “I reached out to the folks at the arena and our folks at the [Mavericks organization] to find out what it would cost to support, financially support, people who aren’t going to be able to come to work,” he said. “They get paid by the hour, and this was their source of income. So, we’ll do some things there. We may ask them to go do some volunteer work in exchange, but we’ve already started the process of having a program in place.”
In just a few hours, he created a powerful precedent that other teams and players were soon to follow.
Soon, Zion Williamson pledged his salary to cover the lost salaries of all employees in the New Orleans Pelicans’ Smoothie King Center. Afterward, Kevin Love announced on Instagram his intention to donate $100,000 to support employees at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
By now, thanks to Cuban and others’ immediate thoughtfulness, almost every team has disclosed a plan to compensate employees, a list of which is found on Sports Illustrated.
Fittingly, the next step several teams took was to simulate the remainder of their seasons virtually, via the popular video game known as “NBA 2K.” After all. players and team employees received salaries as if they were playing games, so the logical next step to establish normalcy in the NBA would to act as if the games were still happening.
The explosion of interest in sports simulation began when a March 18 live stream of the Phoenix Suns facing the Minnesota Timberwolves — with the Suns’ Ty Jerome and the Timberwolves’ Josh Okogie at the controls — drew 3.1 million fans. Despite the game ending in an uncompetitive 93–63 Suns victory, the amount of viewers was greater than the combined number of fans who watched and attended Suns games all of last season. Also, after an online advertisement for the Suns’ team shop, the team reported an increase in sales and activity.
Soon, other teams took notice. After the Suns announced their season was to be played out on Twitch.com, a popular streaming website, other teams took similar actions and helped Allision Harissis, the Suns’ social media manager, to launch the first official NBA game over Twitch.
With professional gamers from the NBA 2K League, an official eSports league sponsored by the NBA, teams could have their NBA 2K affiliates play out the rest of their seasons.
On March 13th, the Suns pulled off the first simulated NBA matchup, facing the Dallas Mavericks. An exciting 150–136 Dallas victory drew 221,000 views, far more than broadcasts of actual NBA games, especially as the league struggled with decreased viewership throughout this season.
The next step for the Suns and the rest of the league is finding ways to incorporate broadcasters and sponsors into these virtual simulations.
Said Dean Stoyer, the Suns’ chief marketing and communications officer, “We had no idea it would be this big.” He added,” We just started out knowing we had to come up with something to keep feeding the fans’ appetite while the players were benched, and that we needed to fill the needs of our sponsors and broadcast partners.”
IF YOU ASK Tobias Harris about the Sixers’ season on social media, he will likely respond as if the NBA season were continuing. While other NBA players spend their hiatus by playing video games and shooting rolled-up socks as if they were basketballs, Harris has taken a completely new approach.
After every Sixers game, he plans to take to Instagram and post as if the game ended. His first post, on March 19th, claimed the Sixers beat the Charlotte Hornets. “Great [win] tonight,” Harris typed.
Two days later, after a hypothetical win over the Atlanta Hawks, Harris took to Instagram to congratulate rookie Matisse Thybulle on his “career night” to lead the Sixers to a victory. Fittingly, he ended his post with “#CoronaSeason,” a reminder of the reality everyone around the world is trying to overcome.
Meanwhile, other NBA players have grown obsessed with the popular app TikTok, a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short music/dance videos. Thybulle himself recently joined TikTok as a result of the NBA’s suspension.
“So now that the NBA season has been put on hold,” he said, “the only logical thing for me to do at this point is to start making TikToks.” Thybulle’s creative and downright hilarious videos have already made waves on the internet, which has received an influx of content from celebrity athletes due to the recent mass-quarantines in America.
Thybulle joins Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tacko Fall, Ja Morant, and LeBron James as one of many famous faces who joined the platform recently.
Other players have taken to video games for solace during this unprecedented time, the most popular names of which include Gordon Hayward, Andre Drummond, Paul George, Joel Embiid, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
On Saturday, Heat forward Meyers Leonard hosted a massive Call of Duty tournament featuring NBA players. Among the participants were Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, Zach LaVine, Mario Hezonja, Josh Hart, Ben Simmons, and Royce O’Neale.
Leonard joined the FaZe Clan, a professional eSports organization, just last year, and with so much downtime, more players are soon to follow.
Just yesterday, via Twitter, former Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins, who has been rehabilitating a torn ACL all season, announced his intention to join the NRG eSports organization. “Who’s trying to get some games in this weekend?” he added.
AS TEAMS POST content reminiscing on the 2019–2020 season and health officials release more information about COVID-19, it seems that the NBA season, among other sports seasons, will be canceled.
Despite players’ and teams’ best efforts, the world is in an abnormal place, and the best anyone can do, including these superstar athletes, is try and create a sense of normalcy.
This need for normalcy is why even the most recognizable names in the league are making silly dance videos or joining a late-night video game stream.
So for us, the fans, kick back, relax, and maybe watch your favorite player make a TikTok or live stream a video game to pass the time — because, as a recent Nike ad claims: “If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world.”
Sources:
All images edited with Adobe PhotoShop
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28939364/the-76ers-rolling-according-tobias-harris-instagram
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28925716/how-nba-moved-quickly-coronavirus-testing
