'I've never seen anything like this:' Fans react to Thunder-Jazz postponement
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jeremy Tilton and his 9-year-old daughter Elise stayed in their seats in an otherwise empty section of Chesapeake Energy Arena.
"I'm not going anywhere because I parked on the top level of the parking garage," Tilton said.
At 8:37 p.m. ET Wednesday, the Thunder-Jazz game in Oklahoma City was officially postponed. Warmups were over. The national anthem had been sung. It was tip-off time when Donnie Strack, the Thunder's vice president of human and player performance, huddled with officials.
There were minutes of uncertainty before players and officials left the court.
An hour later the NBA announced that a Jazz player had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. While the league did not name the Jazz player in its news release, a person familiar with the situation confirmed it was Utah center Rudy Gobert. The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
At the same time. the NBA announced that it is suspending the season until further notice.
Thousands of fans were left confused before the announcement.
"I've never seen anything like this," Tilton said. "That was very interesting to have all the introductions, the warmups, everything that happened and then pull everybody off. It seems like they could have made that decision sooner, especially if it was based on a player being ill."
Sports leagues across the country had made decisions to proceed play without fans, including the NCAA, who made the decision to hold its men's and women's basketball tournaments without spectators.
"I understand the league has to be cautious," Tilton said. "There were some people who were very upset and yelling and carrying on. I wish it would've been done sooner instead of waiting to file out with 18,000 people, but I definitely understand."
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Thunder fans at arena react to night
Cynthia Gillion of Midwest City: "It's disheartening not to be told in advance. This is a work day ... I'm here, we're loyal. We need to be compensated for our time, our parking, our troubles, our ticket package, individual tickets. Whatever decisions are made, we're loyal, we're going to be here. We've been season ticket holders since the Pelicans were here. We are ride or die until the end."
Cindy Philip of Oklahoma City: "My kids are sad about it. They were really looking forward to the game tonight. They should have told us before the game even started, like before it was even time for people to start showing up."
Tina Skocelas: "We come out here, we watch them warm up, we buy beer. Then everybody (players) disappears. Then they cancel the game. Why didn't anybody have any idea what they were doing? You can't tell that before all these people came in here to watch the game? People came from work. People who have kids got babysitters."
Ray Simmons of Deer Creek: “It was the one game we were going to go to this year, which isn’t as irritating to me if it’s because of the sick player, which is what the rumor is. They’ve known for two days he’s sick. He traveled with the team. They packed the stadium full and then they make you sit through the halftime show and everything else and then cancel you after they get parking from all the vendors, concessions. It’s pretty annoying. My son isn’t very happy about it ... I’m more upset with the NBA. They couldn’t have planned for this a little better than to pack to stadium and then kids… We understand it, but my son obviously doesn’t."