On the morning of Wednesday, March 11, the world learned that the Warriors would play the Brooklyn Nets the following night at Chase Center without any fans in the building.
The decision was made in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
So who broke the news about the situation to Golden State's players? How did they react?
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David Lombardi of The Athletic has the details:
“I had to go with our general manager Bob Myers and meet with our team in the locker room after practice that day and say, ‘Hey, guys, we’re playing tomorrow night and we’re gonna be playing in an arena that has no fans in it,'” (Warriors team president) Rick Welts said, recalling that moment via videochat during a virtual sports technology conference Friday. “And the looks on our players’ faces were like, ‘What? How in the world is that gonna work?’ It was really quiet for quite a while.
“Then I think Steph Curry said, ‘Can we bring our own playlist? Can we play our own music?'”
As you all are aware, there was no music because there was no game between Golden State and Brooklyn.
Golden State Warriors
Later on Wednesday, the NBA suspended the season indefinitely after Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.
A little over two weeks later and nobody has any clue when the next NBA game will be played.
[RELATED: What Steph, trainer talk most about during virus shutdown]
“How can sports be the place where people feel safe gathering in large numbers again?” Welts said. “I do think this is a little different than what we’ve seen in the past because I do think there’s gonna be a moment in time when the medical world tells us it’s OK to resume normal life. I think there’s a second psychological part of it, though.
“When are people going to truly feel comfortable and safe doing that? Am I really going to be comfortable putting myself in that environment with 18,000 other people at Chase Center to go watch a game? I’m not so sure those two things will happen at the same time.”