The year 2020 was unarguably one of the worst years that our generation saw in our lifetime. There was a plethora of unforeseen events that shook the world to its core. Among them at the top was none other than the coronavirus pandemic. In March 2020, most of the world went into a lockdown as the cases were rising everywhere around the globe.
The NBA was no different. But no one actually took it seriously until the game between the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder got postponed due to Rudy Gobert testing positive for the coronavirus.
To this day, many remember Gobert’s press conference stunt when he touched several mics without any proper protection to prove that the virus was not that serious.
Donovan Mitchell Uncovers Details About The Day NBA Went Into An Indefinite Lockdown
A few weeks ago, Donovan Mitchell made headlines when he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a blockbuster trade. Many saw it coming because earlier in the offseason, the Jazz also traded Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So it’s obvious that the organization is heading toward a rebuilding phase.
Anyway, Mitchell recently made an appearance on a podcast with JJ Redick. During the podcast, Mitchell shared several stories about how players were in the locker rooms for 9 hours in order to get tested for COVID-19.
(Starts at 0:25):
Some pretty crazy details from the night the NBA shutdown in March 2020. @spidadmitchell @CP3 pic.twitter.com/qvHzIbWqVi
— JJ Redick (@jj_redick) October 20, 2022
“Out of nowhere, all these [hazmat] suits just coming right on the floor. I am like, ‘It must be a shooter in the building or something crazy is happening.’ It never dawned on me that it was that until it was. Chris was like, ‘What’s up with Rudy [Gobert]?’ No one’s saying anything, it’s just that the game was canceled. … This is back when we didn’t know nothing, we didn’t know anything. We were in the locker room for nine hours after the game. First of all, Oklahoma did not want us to go anywhere. We get tested. This was the original test, the one that is all the way up, touching the skull. It was a lot. But I wouldn’t say it was panic in the locker room, it was just like, ‘What can we do?’
Shoutout to CP. He sent us 15 bottles of wine that night. We got drunk, I am not going to lie to you. We were just like, ‘We got no game for a while.’ Everybody is calling. We are on FaceTime. Everybody you could think of is calling everybody in the locker room. Like we are trying to drink to not be scared. It was one of those moments, you are just helpless. So after 9 hours, we finally go to the completely empty hotel. … We can’t get food or do anything. I am calling every friend I know that has a private plane. Like look, ‘Just get the players out.’ Can we get the players at home? And everybody is like, ‘No, we are not doing that.’
None of us went to sleep. We were just sitting there on the curb outside of the Renaissance hotel. Just sitting on a curb, drinking Bud Lights, and chatting. Because we like, ‘This the craziest thing, I have ever experienced.’ We didn’t think any of us might have had it at the time. If you ever talked to Ed Davis, he had a cold. He was coughing up a lung the whole night. And we over here like, ‘Ed, stay the f**k away from us.’ … It was crazy. It was just like a scene out of a movie. I will never forget that night. I have pictures on my phone from that night that I will probably frame up in my house at some point in time, and tell my kids this was one of the biggest moments in sports and in the history of the country.”
Mitchell narrated the story pretty well, as he covered several things in it. From getting stuck in the locker room for 9 hours to getting drunk, thanks to the wine sent by Chris Paul. It must have been a crazy night, and as Mitchell himself mentioned, he will never forget that night in his entire life.
