The first time that Rudy Gobert It tested positive for COVID-19, and the NBA didn’t even have health and safety protocols in place. Instead, he closed the league.
This time, hub Utah Jazz It can only be lost for a few days.
Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on the virus-related protocol list Thursday, something that was not even there when he tested positive for the virus on March 11, 2020, the night the NBA was closed for more than four months. He finally decided to finish his job inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida.
He was disqualified from Friday’s Utah game in Toronto. It is not clear how long he will remain on the sidelines. Normally, even with shorter return-to-play rules in place now than earlier this season, most players who enter protocols are out for at least a week.
Joubert did not play in Utah’s win at Denver on Wednesday night, with the team citing illness as the cause. Jazz said Joubert had two rapid tests that day, both of which came back negative. But the team said the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which was performed overnight, was back on Thursday with Joubert contracting the virus again.
Joubert becomes the second jazz player on the list of ceremonies, joins English Joe. Utah entered the week as the only NBA team that hasn’t had a player in the protocols this season, a streak that ended when the Engels were added to that roster on Tuesday.
Joubert was originally dealing with flu-like symptoms on March 11, 2020, when the Jazz were in Oklahoma City to play a game. He eventually tested positive for the virus, a result he learned about the Jazz and the NBA moments before the start of the game against the Thunder. That match was called off, and after about 90 minutes, the 2019-20 season was called off.
The NBA, and the entire sports scene, is not the same since then.