At about 4:30 pm local time on Monday, Rudy Gobert left the 21c Museum Hotel on the west end of downtown Oklahoma City and boarded a bus for the seven-block trip to the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Nine and a half months ago, Gobert left the same hotel and got in a car to be driven about 20 blocks to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center for the COVID-19 test. It seemed absurd that Gobert could actually have the coronavirus, but after returning negative strep and flu tests, he put a cotton swab to his nose. Less than 24 hours later – just about 10 minutes before Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were scheduled to be released on March 11 – he tested positive for the virus, starting a series of events that forever changed the NBA … and the sports world as a whole.
On Monday, Gobert took the long walk down the hall to the locker room he never saw in March, the one in which his companions spent hours confined, with strangers and fears circulating as they sat in a circle with blue surgical gloves and masks, waiting for health officials to arrive to test them.
“I went into my office and remembered how I spent some time there,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder on Monday with a smile. “I’m not going to call it PTSD, because it’s not that extreme, but there are certainly memories.”
Monday’s game was a full circle moment for Gobert and Jazz, with an inevitable flood of memories, although they didn’t want to make it the focus of the night. They didn’t spend much time talking about it, Snyder said, but little things, like being in the same hotel, seeing the locker room or walking into a block without fans, served as reminders.
“I had the same [hotel] fourth, believe it or not, “said Donovan Mitchell.” Which is ironic.
Jazz won the game 110-109, with Mitchell hitting a runner with seven seconds remaining to provide the final margin. Thunder had a chance to win at the buzzer, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander driving to the right, but was greeted by Gobert’s imposing presence and his albatross arms contesting the shot. Gilgeous-Alexander’s tray was short, Gobert grabbed the rebound and the bell rang with the ball in his hands.
“It’s just basketball. I was just focused on trying to get the win,” said Gobert. “Single [big] thing was to be back in the same hotel, all the memories. It was a little strange. “
Gobert’s life changed in March, when he tested positive a few days after touching reporters’ recorders at a table in front of him, taking into account the new protocols put in place by the league to separate players and media to protect against spread of the virus. He became the NBA’s zero patient, his carelessness being an example. He accepted the responsibility and apologized, then spent two weeks fighting the virus and dealing with severe symptoms, which included months without tasting or smelling it.
“Rudy was reviled and, in retrospect, we have a greater understanding of the virus,” said Snyder. “I think Rudy fully recognizes that there were some mistakes, and those mistakes were made over and over by different people, all of us.
“At that time, it was such a significant thing; and in Rudy’s case, he had a chance to sue him. We always challenge ourselves when we have adversity, to make him better, and I think Rudy came out of it in a place where there is growth . Not just for Rudy, but for all of us. “
A lot has changed since March – people, places, things.
“It’s the same year. It’s still the same year for all of this,” said Mitchell. “It looks like it was a long time ago, but I don’t think we thought about it too much. We had a moment when we got here and it was like, ‘Okay, we’re back.'”
The March game was also a tipping point for the Gobert-Mitchell relationship, with tensions mounting over the transmission of the virus after Mitchell tested positive the next day. All the chemistry in the Jazz locker room was in question, with many asking themselves openly if something was going to happen. Would Jazz trade one of its stars? Could they solve this?
Mitchell admitted it took “a while to calm down” and the two of them went without speaking for a long time. When the NBA resumed in the Florida bubble, Gobert and Mitchell were forced to tackle the problem and repair the fracture. They realigned themselves to a common goal as a unifier: to win.
Monday’s game was adequate for a number of reasons, but the fact that Mitchell hit the green shot and Gobert produced the winning chart showed the formula on which Jazz built his hopes. Snyder mentioned the growth the team experienced that night in March, but it goes deeper than winning a basketball game almost 10 months later.
“I think we all really appreciate what we consider normal life,” said the coach. “You can’t forget that night; it was significant for both teams, really for the championship. But also, the contrast between that point and where we are now, the season, the hiatus, the bubble, coming back and playing again – it seems like a lifetime has passed since that happened. “