The NHL has put its season on ice, at least for the time being. The momentous decision was announced early on Thursday and comes on the heels of the NBA’s announcement the day prior to halt proceedings, a move it was forced to make after it was revealed an NBA player tested positive for Coronavirus.

Seconds before the Thunder-Jazz game tipped-off on Wednesday night in Oklahoma, Thunder’s head medical staffer raced onto to the court to talk to referees. Immediately afterward players were marched off the court and back into their respective locker rooms, leaving spectators and a national television audience agog, totally in the dark and wondering what was going on. Why the sudden postponement?

Speculation was rife and not just in the stadium. Twitter was bursting at the seams with rumors, much of it trotting out the deadly virus, COVID-19, which is wreaking havoc on an extraordinary global scale, as the culprit behind this unprecedented happenstance.

It wasn’t long afterward that the reason for the swift postponement was revealed,  confirming everyone’s worst fears and delivering the biggest news to hit the NBA: Rudy Gobert had tested positive for coronavirus.

Utah Jazz All-Star Rudy Gobert has tested positive for coronavirus, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

Sources say Gobert is feeling good, strong and stable — and was feeling strong enough to play tonight.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 12, 2020

 

Less than an hour later, the NBA announced it was pulling the plug on the season for the foreseeable, suspending all activity indefinitely.

It is unknown whether the NBA will resume proceedings at some point later this year or whether it will decide to simply put the 2019-20 season to bed altogether, leaving it incomplete forevermore. What is obvious, however, is that the league is finally being a responsible global citizen, putting the health of its players, staff, fans, and organization as a whole first.

That the NHL followed suit less than 24 hours after Gobert’s diagnosis isn’t really surprising. It was inevitable. Gobert testing positive for the Coronavirus that is gripping the world, like no other disease has in recent memory and turning life as we know it upside down, economically and individually, had a sobering effect on not just the NBA but North American sports in general. Maybe even North America in its entirety.

By now, Gobert’s irresponsibility and reckless attitude towards the threat of Coronavirus have been viewed by millions. Love him or hate him – that’s another debate entirely – there’s an argument to be had that he may have inadvertently saved the nation. What happened to him definitely caused all and sundry to stand up and take notice. Take the pandemic more seriously than it was being treated up to that point.

A couple of days ago Rudy Gobert joked about the corona virus by touching everything on the podium. Now, it’s suspected that he’s being taking to the hospital for testing to see if he actually has the corona virus. Bruh. pic.twitter.com/D644Wwy8uC

— DailySportsDosage (@SportsDsd) March 12, 2020

Alpha lipoic acid is an antioxidant that prevents aging processes in viagra canada deliver cute-n-tiny.com the penis cells. Some http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/grey-macaques/ generico viagra on line of these are directly related to sexual performance for men. Therefore, it order cialis online is one of the best herbs to maintain harder and fuller erection. Ed correspondence from MDU, as the institute price of cialis has marked a niche for itself in terms of quality education, placement and .highly qualified faculty.

 

 

Commissioner Gary Bettman said as much in his statement, “In light of ongoing developments resulting from the coronavirus, and after consulting with medical experts and convening a conference call of the Board of Governors, the National Hockey League is announcing today that it will pause the 2019-20 season beginning with tonight’s games,”

Thursday’s slate of NHL games might have been one of the most important nights of the season with so much at stake towards the broad spectrum of the hockey playoff race. Big games were on the cards, from Nashville taking on Toronto, Buffalo facing off against Montreal, Detroit squaring up to Washington and Vegas and Minnesota colliding, and much, much more.

That’s all gone for the time being, perhaps for the rest of the season. It’s a wait and see scenario until further notice. However, the National Players’ Association hailed the decision appropriate in light of the current circumstances.

Bettman referred to Gobert testing positive as one of the key deciding factors in the NHL’s decision, saying “It now seems more likely that some member of the NHL community would test positive at some point,” He went on to add that it would be greatly inappropriate to continue playing games in such a terrifying climate.

Taking a page from the NHL, the CHL and AHL have also decided to suspend their seasons for the time being. Hockey Canada was quick to release a statement, declaring its intention to cancel all hockey activity for the foreseeable.

Chief Executive Officer, Tom Renney, announced that all hockey activity sanctioned by Hockey Canada would be canceled. This involves not just games but covers everything on and off the ice, from meetings, practice, trials and so on.

"Hockey has had to answer a lot of questions over the last number of weeks…we need to be better…"@HockeyCanada CEO Tom Renney addresses the current coaching and social issues in the game and the need for improvement, inclusion and acceptance: https://t.co/Ih7r2hrbmO pic.twitter.com/AIx3gUxToW

— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) December 2, 2019

 

All major sporting events around the world have had to make a similarly tough decision amidst the growing concern of the Coronavirus pandemic. Systematically, leagues across nations, spanning all manner of sports, have either suspended campaigns or axed seasons altogether.

Since Gobert tested positive for Coronavirus, his Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell has also tested positive for Coronavirus.