The NBA on Wednesday announced it has suspended its season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to suspend the season came shortly after it was revealed Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus. Wednesday night's Jazz-Thunder game was postponed before tip-off, and the NBA's announcement followed.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated joined NBC Sports Boston's "Boston Sports Tonight" to discuss the NBA's decision to suspend the season, and he said there's a chance the season may not even resume.
They had an owners' call early in the day where several owners expressed their support for the idea of shuttering the season for the foreseeable future. Most of the owners on that call were more in favor of letting this thing play out with empty arenas. But there was growing support for shuttering the doors.
The people I've talked to tonight, they don't have any idea how long this is going to last, and if I had to characterize it any way, there's not a lot of optimism that this season is going to be able to be resumed. There's more of a sense that -- and they're getting this from their own medical experts -- that there's a real possibility that this gets worse countrywide before it gets better.
And if it continues to get worse, they're not going to come back and play in front of arenas. Now they've pulled the pin on the nuclear option, I do not believe based on my conversations they're going to come back and say, 'Alright, we're going to play games in empty arenas, smaller venues, just go get the TV games on the air.'
That's certainly a bleak outlook, but the NBA has to take every possible measure to assure the safety of the public. Especially after one of its own players tested positive for the virus.
Gobert and the Jazz took on the Celtics in Boston on Friday. The two teams also faced off in Utah on Feb. 26.
Prior to the suspension of the NBA season, the C's were scheduled to visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.