Washington Wizards: Amidst coronavirus fears, season is over…for now

Amidst concerns over the coronavirus, the NBA season is over…for now. We’ll see what this means for the Washington Wizards.

The NBA season is over, at least for now. The NBA has announced that the season has been suspended indefinitely after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. So no more games for the Washington Wizards, or any other team, for the foreseeable future.

The announcement comes after the last-minute cancelation of the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s matchup with the Utah Jazz and is one of the more severe responses from a sports league to the novel coronavirus that we have seen. While the NCAA has barred fans from March Madness, they’re still planning on playing those games.

This is quite the escalation from what was more or less business as usual before Gobert’s positive test. Aside from a mandatory six-eight foot distance between reporters and players, and maybe some smaller crowds, things were largely the same. Not anymore.

Bradley Beal‘s reaction on Twitter pretty much summed things up.

While the announcement does put NBA action on hold, for now, it doesn’t necessarily end the NBA season for good. Their statement seems to suggest that the NBA is still exploring options, as they’ll “use the hiatus to determine next steps,” but right now, it’s unclear what those next steps will be.

At the time of the hiatus, the Washington Wizards are 24-40, and if the season were to be over, they would finish 9th in the Eastern Conference, one spot shy of the playoffs. As a result, they would have the NBA’s 9th best lottery odds heading into the draft.

To date, Gobert is the only NBA player that has preliminarily tested positive, but the novel coronavirus’s effect has been widespread. There have been more than 115,000 confirmed cases in more than 70 countries.

As the novel coronavirus progressed around the world, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The NBA is not the first sports league to respond. The Ivy League has suspended all spring sports. The Seattle Mariners have decided to play home games outside of Seattle. The Premier League has canceled and postponed games. The list goes on and on.

We’ll see if this is really the end of the season or just the end for now. It’s an unprecedented situation so anything could happen. A shortened season? A shortened-season that’s postponed until the playoffs? Or maybe just a three-day break until the NBA figures things out? Your guess is as good as mine.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.