The NBA’s hiatus will be at least 30 days, commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday night, while New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Barclays Center and the Garden could be closed for months.
Mayor de Blasio declared a state of emergency in the city on Thursday, saying the coronavirus outbreak “could easily be a six-month crisis.”
New York State had banned gatherings of more than 500 people — including Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center — and de Blasio said he’d work with the state to enforce the new rule. He added he expects it to be in place for “a number of months.” That means Barclays Center and the Garden could end up shuttered for an extended period in an attempt to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus. Prudential Center also announced Thursday it postponed all events through March.
“The last 24 hours have been very, very sobering. Yesterday morning seems like a long time ago,” de Blasio said in a press conference. “We got a lot of information in the course of a day yesterday and a lot changed then, then last night it just seemed the world turned upside down in the course of just a few hours.”
The NBA suspended play on Wednesday night after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. On Thursday, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell was also diagnosed with the virus.