National Basketball Association

Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID test gives us perspective

Published Jan. 7, 2022 7:08 p.m. ET

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

There was a time when this column didn’t think particularly highly of Rudy Gobert, the Utah Jazz defensive wizard and, for a minute, the sports world’s crown prince of early COVID stupidity.

On March 9, 2020, Gobert ended a press conference by deliberately touching all of the reporters’ voice recorders and microphones placed in front of him in an attempt to get some laughs.

Back in the locker room, he jokingly put his hands on various players’ clothes and other belongings.

Two days later, he tested positive for the coronavirus, the first known NBA player to do so. Immediately following his diagnosis, the league shut down entirely. It would not return for four-and-a-half months, and only then in an Orlando bubble.

Gobert's misguided attempt at humor happened at the beginning of a period of modern history when fear became rampant and everything changed with stunning rapidity. His actions were seen as a masterpiece of buffoonery, made exponentially worse by the positive test that came subsequently.

On Thursday, Gobert tested positive again. He will miss Utah’s visit to play the Toronto Raptors on Friday. This time, there is no thought of closing things down. The Jazz will go from Canada to Indiana, where they will play the Pacers, then Detroit for a meeting with the Pistons.

They have access to replacement players under the hardship exemption. Gobert may be back within a week, assuming he recovers without complication and tests negative first.

It is an intriguing juxtaposition of where we were and where we are. Leagues and teams have dealt with this new reality for so long that it doesn’t really feel like a temporary phase anymore, it’s just how things go down.

And, with time, some perspective on Gobert and his actions nearly two years ago is due –– maybe overdue. What he did was outrageously silly, but we can assume with near total certainty that he wouldn’t have come up with such a gag if he’d had any idea what was about to befall humanity.

"Of course, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it," he said in December of that year, after signing a new contract worth more than $40 million per year.

Let’s not forget how quickly the alterations came to pass. On the same Monday that Gobert got handsy with the mics, the cancellation of the Indian Wells tennis tournament seemed monumentally hasty. Yet long before the end of that week the NBA was closed, March Madness had been canceled, baseball spring training was suspended, and except for a few dudes streaming pickleball from isolation, no one in America was playing anything, anywhere.

"I was careless and make no excuse," Gobert said at the time. "I hope my story serves as a warning and causes everyone to take this seriously. I will do whatever I can to support using my experience as a way to educate others and prevent the spread of this virus."

Currently, the Jazz are in third position in the Western Conference in a season where the NBA’s rigorous testing has unearthed a staggering number of cases. More than 300 players have entered the league’s COVID protocols during the campaign, and the previous record of 540 players used by all teams has already been broken because of all the reinforcements required.

Until Joe Ingles was added to the list on Tuesday, with Gobert’s test result coming in soon after, the Jazz were the only team to have avoided placing a player in the protocols all season.

There have been so many positive tests across sports that it’s impossible to keep pace with them all. There are times when you wonder how come an NFL team is playing with a replacement quarterback, then immediately realize why.

When Kevin Durant contracts the virus or Aaron Rodgers gives controversial views on it, it makes news. Otherwise, each fresh case is just another to be added to the sporting and public tally.

This is probably the last time a COVID result will be worth a column in its own right in this space, and only then because of who it happened to and his place in the bleak history of the past couple of years. An individual has tested positive for COVID and, like with anyone else, sports star or not, they deserve our wishes for a full and swift recovery.

What Gobert’s repeat situation does is give us some perspective. When he first got it, we went rapidly from knowing nothing much about the virus, to being in mortal fear of the death it could, and would, wreak.

Concerns about the virus and its impact on individuals are certainly still present, although vaccines and the apparent lessened effects of Omicron have created some semblance of relief. Still, the question of whether we will ever be truly rid of this thing remains top of mind for so many.

The sporting world returned long, long ago now. Two full NFL seasons have taken place since all the closures, and soon, two Olympics. But COVID is still flexing its muscles on the sports we love and the way they are run.

Seasons aren’t postponed anymore but they are disrupted, and the availability of a player, any player, can’t be taken for granted. And things can still be shut down –– games, practices and, for now at least and once again, Rudy Gobert.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.