With the league in a state of flux on Wednesday night, there was no surer example of the uncertainty of the NBA than the Kings-Pelicans game on Wednesday evening.
Roughly an hour before tip-off nearly simultaneously, a report came out that Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the Coronavirus and minutes later the league announced it had suspended the season indefinitely.
Initially, the Kings and Pelicans, the final game on the schedule for Wednesday night, was set to still tip-off as the final game of the night and likely for multiple weeks. But as news began to surface that Courtney Kirkland, one of the referees scheduled to officiate Wednesday’s game, had also recently officiated a Jazz game in which Gobert played in.
The Pelicans took a stand and chose not to take the floor and play the game and the league eventually obliged, suspending the game.
However, there was clear indecision before the game was postponed as the Kings were on the floor warming up as New Orleans remained in the locker room. With the status of the game still in the air, Lonzo Ball took the court looking to get up shots either as a pregame warm-up or as a workout in lieu of the scheduled game.
Ball took the floor as the public announcer informed the fans of the cancellation. With the game over and the situation still unstable, Ball was quickly escorted off the floor by teammate Brandon Ingram.
As noted by Christian Clark of NOLA.com, the Pelicans quickly left the locker room and planned on heading back to New Orleans on Wednesday night.
