A minute-by-minute look at March 11, the night Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and changed sports

It’s both amazing and horrifying to think that the night a professional athlete testing positive for COVID-19 was perhaps the first time many Americans took the pandemic seriously.

But it’s true.

In the days leading up to March 11, 2020, the reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States numbered in the hundreds. Italy had announced a nation-wide lockdown the day before, and countries around the world were figuring out their strategies. Yet, up to that point, it all still felt distant for many Americans.

Then, in the span of just a few hours on that Wednesday night, everything changed in sports and culture. As 2020 comes to a close, we decided to look back on what exactly happened leading up to and after the night Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive.