Elsewhere, the signs were all inauspicious and they all spoke the same truth. Life, as we always knew it, as sports fans and human beings, was paying attention to a rock. The brake lines were cut, the pedal was on the floor and we were all headed towards a great unknown abyss.
At Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, the Knights left the floor after destroying the Hawks in overlock, 136-131, a rare bright spot in an otherwise soul-sucking season, only their 21st win in 66 games. When he reached his locker room, he was welcomed by the Chief Medical Officer of MSG Sports, Dr. In Lisa Calhan’s suppressed voice, and the fun of the news.
The NBA season, over, was suspended. The announcement was made when Naik and the Hawks were shouting slogans through the fourth quarter, when a game between the Jazz and Thunder in Oklahoma City was canceled when Rudy Gobert of Utah tested positive for COVID-19 did. Fans enter outside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Shortly thereafter, a Kings-Pelican game in Sacramento was also canceled.
“I hope it’s only for a while,” Knicks guard Wayne Ellington said. “We don’t know a lot. We just know that we want everyone – both fans and players – to be safe. “
In Denver, the Rangers scored a tying goal with 13 seconds left in regulation before losing in overtime to the Avalanche, but stealing a point destroyed the effigy of the Blueshirts: they believed a pass to the hurried Islanders Were sure to do and to secure the playoff location. own sake. They were eager to board a plane to Phoenix for their next game.
But there was no flight to Phoenix. There was no game. Not for months.
“We’ll just have to wait,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “just like everyone else.”
So it was that one by one, the game-by-game, city-by-city lights went out of the sports world, starting on March 11, 2020, like extinguishing power from building to building on a rolling summer, block. The section after Maitha. Earlier that day the Ivy League – which was already the first conference to cancel its postson basketball tournament – announced that it was suspending the spring games.
For about five minutes that seemed like an extreme reaction.
Except news falling like hail outside the sky. In Italy, football club Juventus announced that one of its players, Defense Danielle Rugani, tested positive for coronovirus. In Hackensack John Brennan, a longtime trainer and executive at Yonkers Raceway, became the first person to die of the virus in New Jersey.
In Tokyo, officials tried to do damage control after a board member of the Olympic Organizing Committee suggested postponing the Summer 2020 Games for a year; This apology, soon, became an apology for forgiveness. Jacksonville, Fla. In, tournament player championship officials privately admitted that they would almost certainly have to clear the galleries this weekend.
The notion of empty arenas, stadiums and bleachers was the prevailing thought, in fact, the last major assembly in New York City was coming out on March 11. St. John and Georgetown, the ancient Big East rivals, faced each other at Madison Square Garden and 17,534 people were there. Both teams suffered losses in a difficult season, but the Johnnies went on a 23–0 second half, taking down the Hoys 75–62.
The NCAA had already announced that the upcoming championship tournament would be without fanfare. One after the other, the conference tournaments declared a similar. But those 17,534 at the Garden were too late to do anything about it, and it was just as well: the roar that was with that 23-0 spurt would have to satisfy them and make those guys Have to keep those who were there for a while. There is still nowhere near a large gathering in New York. And it’s officially been a year now.
Even as the game was being played, the Big East announced that it was keeping fans away from the rest of the tournament, and even as news spread that another devastating blow came: MLB The season settled in less than three weeks. When the Mariniers and Giants, who live in the growing COVID-19 hotspots in Sier and San Francisco, were crippled, the handicapped would have to move home games or cancel their entire blocks of the season.
And as midnight approached, 11 March dissolved on 12 March, it was still the desperate hope: how do we save the Games? How do we save the seasons? How do we stop the sport from nose-diving?
By 12 March, the answer became clear: We could not.
As of March 12, there were many uncomfortable realities to consider well beyond the minute-by-minute cancellations of the conference tournament, NCAA tournament and NHL, NBA, MLB, MLS, PGA, buffet tables of game briefs. Define and fill our day and night.
For example, Gobert played 34 minutes at the Garden on 7 March. Was it contagious then? This was a question that was particularly relevant to Noix, still sequestered in Atlanta, and to those who covered and worked on the game.
It was no longer theoretical. It was between us. Businessmen sent workers home. Bars and restaurants closed. The subways were empty. People started asking: How do I test? How do i stay safe? How do I protect my family? All of these things suddenly seemed a lot more relevant than the game on 12 March.
So it was that a year ago, 11 March – the game’s final death for three solid months would rattle. 17,534, who left the Garden high on the Johnnys, high on the game, would be the last to remember what seemed like an exciting game and a big, lagging, electric rush, as it felt, and when We were surprised when we repeated that quaint buzz.
We still wonder.
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