BY HENRY ABBOTT

Even though virtually every expert in communicable diseases recommends it, the federal government hasn’t mandated social distancing—which would surely include canceling sporting events. So that decision was passed down to cities and leagues. The city of San Francisco took action, but the NBA’s board of governors hadn’t, as of Wednesday evening. So that decision was passed down again—to a man named Donnie Strack.

Strack grew up in Indianapolis, a ballboy for the Pacers. He bonded easily with players—so easily that Reggie Miller slipped into the back row of Strack’s high-school games, and, according to Indianapolis Monthly, Shaquille O’Neal challenged him to free-throw shooting contests. 

By Wednesday night, though, years had passed. Strack had aged and advanced to the point that he is now the Thunder’s vice president of human and player performance. And, according to ESPN’s Royce Young, Strack sprinted onto the court, just as the referees were about to toss the ball in the air to start the game. So many others had deferred. Strack would be the one to protect the players.

Shortly after the game, we’d learn what Strack presumably knew then: A Jazz player had tested positive for COVID-19. Multiple reports declared that player to be Jazz center Rudy Gobert. The players were sent to their locker rooms, some pausing only for some hand sanitizer. Before long the scoreboard had news: The game would be postponed.

Tas Melas @TasMelas

12:41 AM ∙ Mar 12, 2020

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At 9:33 p.m. ET the NBA emailed that, after tonight’s games, the season would be suspended. As I write this, sources say players at the game in Oklahoma City are being tested.

They should build a statue of Donnie Strack. In a scary moment of history, when nobody knows how many people in any stadium might have COVID-19, Strack made the bold intervention. Who knows how many infections he prevented on the court and in the stands. 

In some rough math, more than four million fans would have attended the regular season games the NBA just canceled. Michael Grange of Canada’s Sportsnet wrote earlier in the day:

Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at Sinai Health and University Health Network and University of Toronto is a Raptors fan, but the prospect of attending a game at the moment makes him shudder, professionally and personally. He paints a scenario where it would only take a small number of unknowingly infected fans to spread the virus to hundreds more as they share handrails, sit at close quarters and use the same ketchup dispensers. If even a fraction of them end up gravely ill the ripple effects could be calamitous: “Now you need an entire hospital’s full ICU [Intensive Care Unit] to take care of these patients,” he said. “Repeat for several games each night, night after night. Have I scared you? Good. That’s what’s happening.”

Even with only one confirmed case, it’s easy to see the benefits of suspending play. In the most conservative possible accounting, (that doesn’t even assess coaches, trainers, staff, fans, and journalists whose microphones Gobert intentionally touched mocking COVID-19 fears), Gobert has shared the court with 80 players and officials just in the last ten days. The list below is only of the players who checked into games Gobert played. 

Without Dr. Strack, this list would be a lot longer. (All information from Basketball-Reference).

The Jazz

• Joe Ingles                 

• Royce O'Neale               

• Donovan Mitchell           

• Bojan Bogdanovic                         

• Georges Niang              

• Tony Bradley               

• Emmanuel Mudiay            

• Mike Conley                

• Jordan Clarkson            

• Ed Davis                   

• Juwan Morgan               

• Rayjon Tucker              

• Nigel Williams-Goss        

• Miye Oni                   

• Jarrell Brantley      

• Justin Wright-Foreman 

March 2 at Cavaliers

• Kevin Porter Jr.         

• Cedi Osman           

• Collin Sexton        

• Larry Nance Jr.          

• Kevin Love           

• Matthew Dellavedova  

• Ante Zizic             

• Matt Mooney 

Officials: Mitchell Ervin, Eric Lewis, Derek Richardson

March 4 at Knicks

• Julius Randle     

• RJ Barrett        

• Elfrid Payton     

• Maurice Harkless  

• Taj Gibson        

• Bobby Portis      

• Wayne Ellington   

• Reggie Bullock    

• Kevin Knox II        

• Frank Ntilikina

Officials: Jenna Schroeder, Aaron Smith, Sean Wright

March 6 at Celtics

• Marcus Smart     

• Semi Ojeleye     

• Jayson Tatum     

• Daniel Theis     

• Kemba Walker     

• Brad Wanamaker   

• Grant Williams   

• Robert Williams III 

• Javonte Green    

• Romeo Langford   

• Enes Kanter  

Officials: Marat Kogut, Ken Mauer, Gediminas Petraitis

March 7 Jazz at Pistons

• Christian Wood         

• Tony Snell             

• Brandon Knight         

• Svi Mykhailiuk  

• John Henson            

• Langston Galloway      

• Jordan McRae           

• Bruce Brown            

• Sekou Doumbouya        

• Thon Maker             

• Donta Hall

Officials: Brandon Adair, John Goble, Michael Smith

March 9 Jazz vs. Raptors

• Kyle Lowry

• Pascal Siakam

• Serge Ibaka

• OG Anunoby

• Norman Powell

• Patrick McCaw

• Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

• Matt Thomas

• Terence Davis

• Chris Boucher

Officials: Brent Barnaky, Courtney Kirkland, Rodney Mott

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Thank you for reading TrueHoop! A few days ago we explored how the NBA makes these kinds of decisions.