At around 4:30 p.m. local time Monday, Rudy Gobert walked out of the 21c Museum Hotel on the west side of downtown Oklahoma City and boarded a bus to make the seven-block journey to the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Nine and a half months ago, Gobert walked out of that same hotel and got in a car to be taken to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center about 20 blocks away to be tested for COVID-19. It seemed ridiculous that Gobert might have the coronavirus, but after returning negative tests for strep and flu, he got a smear in his nose. Less than 24 hours later – just about 10 minutes before the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were scheduled to begin on March 11 – he tested positive for the virus and began a series of events that changed the NBA forever … and the sports world as a whole.
On Monday, Gobert made the long walk down the hall to the locker room he’d never seen in March, the room where his teammates were locked up for hours, with strangers and fears around them as they sat in a circle wearing blue surgical gloves and masks, waiting for health officials to test them.
“I walked into my office and remembered how I spent some time there,” jazz coach Quin Snyder said with a smile on Monday. “I won’t call it PTSD because it’s not that extreme, but there are memories for sure.”
Monday’s match was a moment when the circle was full for Gobert and the Jazz, with a flood of memories inevitable, although they didn’t want to make it the focus of the evening. They didn’t talk about it for too long, Snyder said, but little things like being in the same hotel or seeing the locker room or walking into a field without fans served as a reminder.
“I had the same [hotel] room, believe it or not, ”said Donovan Mitchell. That is ironic. ‘
The Jazz won the game 110-109, with Mitchell hitting a banked runner with seven seconds to go to bid the final margin. The Thunder had a chance to win at the buzzer, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander driving to the right, but he was met by the towering presence of Gobert and his albatrosses contesting the shot. Gilgeous-Alexander’s lay-up was short, Gobert grabbed the rebound and the buzzer sounded with the ball in his hands.
“It’s just basketball. I was just focused on trying to win,” said Gobert. “The one [big] the thing was to be back in the same hotel, all the memories. It was a bit weird. “
Gobert’s life changed in March when he tested positive a few days after touching reporters’ recorders on a table in front of him, exposing the new protocols introduced by the league to separate players and media to prevent the spread of the virus. protect, lighted. . He became the NBA’s Patient Zero, using his carelessness as an example. He accepted his responsibility and apologized, then struggled for two weeks with the virus and coped with strong symptoms, including months without being able to taste or smell.
“Rudy was maligned, and in retrospect we have a better understanding of the virus,” Snyder said. “I think Rudy fully realizes that some mistakes have been made, and those mistakes have been made over and over again by different people, all of us.
“At the time it was such an important thing; and in Rudy’s case, he’s had the chance to come to terms with it. We always challenge ourselves when we’re facing adversity, to make you better, and I think Rudy is here in a place where there is growth. Not just 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 from all that,” Mitchell said. “It feels like it was gone forever, 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 match also marked a turning point for the relationship between Gobert and Mitchell, with tensions mounting over the transmission of the virus after Mitchell tested positive the next day. The whole chemistry of the Jazz dressing room was at stake, and many openly questioned if anything should give. Would the Jazz trade one of their stars? Could they fix it?
Mitchell admitted it “ took a while to cool down, ” and the two went without talking for a long time. As the NBA moved back into the Florida bubble, Gobert and Mitchell were forced to address the issue and fix the breach. They aligned with a common goal as the unifier: to win.
Monday’s game was appropriate for many reasons, but to give Mitchell the go-ahead and make Gobert the winning stop showed the formula the Jazz had placed their hopes on. Snyder was referring to the growth that night’s team experienced in March, but it goes deeper than winning a basketball game nearly 10 months later.
“I think we all have such a greater appreciation for what we consider to be a normal life,” said the coach. “You can’t help remembering that night; it was important for both teams, really for the league. But also the contrast between that point and where we are now, the season, the break, the bubble, coming back and playing. again – it seems like a lifetime since that happened. “