Ro's Recz

March 11th, 2020 is a day that I will always remember. I remember that I was in Japan at the time, and I was really excited for major events such as baseball season, March Madness, and F1 season to start. However, the whole world changed on March 11th after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.

While Europe and Asia had already been dealing with the coronavirus by that time, the US had been relatively unscathed (or just had a lack of testing to identify the virus). I knew that the virus would eventually make it to the US, but I was unsure of what would happen when it did. On March 11th, I remembered seeing the breaking news on ESPN that NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, which was the first case of coronavirus in any major US sport.

Things quickly spiraled out of control, as the NBA shut down its season almost immediately. Then, other events such as March Madness and the MLB made the decision to shut down as well, as they did not want to have a major breakout within their ranks. A new 30 for 30 Podcast titled “March 11 2020” details the inside story of the events leading up to Gobert’s positive test, as well as what happened immediately afterwards.

It is a great story to listen to, and it serves as a reminder of how poorly the US handled the virus (especially at the beginning). Most people in the US did not really take COVID-19 seriously until major sports starting shutting down (then reality really hit), and the government only began to respond once sports leagues shut down. The episode is only 45 minutes or so and it is worth listening to!