NBA Season Suspended Indefinitely

Knicks-Hawks the Last New York Game For a While

With around five minutes left in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night's game in Atlanta, it was announced by the NBA that this would be the last Knicks game for a while.

The NBA has made the decision to suspend the season indefinitely, following the events at an Oklahoma City-Utah game.

"The NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19," the league said in a statement emailed to reporters. Shams Charania reports the player was Rudy Gobert. "The test result was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of tonight’s game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. At that time, tonight’s game was canceled. The affected player was not in the arena.

"The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice. The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic."

The decision obviously reflects a rapidly changing situation on the ground across sports. Just a few days ago, leagues had been conducting business as usual. Now, the NCAA Tournament, both men and women, will not play in front of fans. And for an undetermined time, the NBA will not play at all.

"Not long ago, the Jazz were in New York City, folks," Walt Frazier pointed out on the Knicks broadcast.

A lost end of the season has far greater ramifications than the basketball questions, but it does represent lost opportunities to see further growth from Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina and Mitchell Robinson. Again, though, the questions facing the Knicks, and all of us, far outstrip the needs and long-term prognosis for a professional basketball team.

Obviously, lots more to come on this story.