As you know by now, the NBA suspended their 2019-20 campaign after NBA All-Star Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus, before the Utah Jazz was to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.

NBA Players with Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Donovan Mitchell joined his teammate as another player to test positive for COVID-19. After it was discovered that Gobert has coronavirus, the NBA wasted no time.

“The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic,” the NBA said in a statement announcing the suspension. As of this post, here’s the complete list of the NBA players that have tested positively for the coronavirus (COVID-19):

Another Jazz player, Emmanuel Mudiay was listed as unavailable for the OKC game due to sickness – no specifics have been released about Mudiay’s illness , Days before being diagnosed, Gobert made a joke about the coronavirus pandemic by touching all the microphones and recorders during a Jazz media session.

A couple days later, the Detroit Pistons announced that Christian Wood tested positive on March 14, 2020. Three days after Wood was diagnosed, the Brooklyn Nets released a statement that four unnamed players had COVID-19 (of only one was showing symptoms) — later Kevin Durant confirmed he was one of those players.

Bigger Than the NBA

As disappointing as it is for NBA fans that the league put the NBA season on hold, the reason behind it is sound. Gobert might have been the first NBA player diagnosed with the coronavirus (renamed COVID-19), but it doesn’t mean he was the player to pass it on. The coronavirus can be asymptomatic and gestate for a couple weeks before showing any signs. That means Rudy (and Mitchell) may have caught the virus from another teammate, an opponent, staff, or fan in the previous 2-3 weeks. Think about that. Here’s the teams that the Utah Jazz played in the last two weeks:

The coronavirus is global news and has made us hyper-sensitive and view any sickness through the lens of the coronavirus. For example, Stephen Curry missed a game last week prior to his return, and no one would have faulted you if you thought it was the COVID-19. Luckily, it wasn’t.

This isn’t the first time that a flu-like global epidemic has impacted professional basketball players. Back in 2009, pro hoopers from LeBron James to Euro superstar Theo Papaloukas to Josh Childress contracted the H1N1 virus otherwise known as Swine Flu.

Expect this list to get much longer and more professional sports leagues to follow suit.