Covid19

Angie Treasure

The NBA will allow players to return to their team’s practice facilities beginning Friday, but the Utah Jazz plan to take a little extra time to make sure the Zions Bank Basketball Campus is as safe as possible before opening its doors.

“That could be within a day or two, but my best guess is it will be after May 8,” Jazz executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey said Tuesday in a wide-ranging conference call with reporters. “We want to make sure the facility meets all of the league specifications, the local and state health officials’ protocols, and then we’re going to be even more stringent with those standards and create our own.”

When the Jazz’s practice facility does reopen, there will be strict rules for players and staff who decide to come in for workouts or treatment on a voluntary basis.

“We have worked closely with state health officials and our own medical and health performance team,” Lindsey said. “We’re going to ramp up systematically.

“… The biggest goal is to have the confidence of the players and the staff that they can enter our facility safely.”

The Jazz have been at the center of the NBA’s COVID-19 response ever since All-Star center Rudy Gobert became the first player in a U.S. professional sports league to test positive for the virus back on March 12, causing officials to cancel a game between the Jazz and Thunder seconds before tipoff and ultimately suspend play across the league

Lindsey has seen positives and negatives in the days and weeks since.

“Frankly, it’s woken me up a few times thinking what might have happened if we were to have that test come back a little bit later and the players were already playing the game. It’s something I’ve said many prayers of thanks and gratitude about,” Lindsey said. “…As tough as it was for us to have Rudy be the first, I think it saved infections. Not to be melodramatic, but I think it saved lives.”

The diagnosis also caused some tension between Gobert and his All-Star teammate Donovan Mitchell, who subsequently tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. Both players have recovered physically from the virus , and Lindsey said Tuesday that the two stars have moved on and are ready to focus on basketball.

“They’re ready to put this behind them and move forward and act professionally,” Lindsey said. “We’re very pleased with the collective makeup of our group, Donovan and Rudy in particular, and we look forward to moving forward. They’ve both visited at the ownership level, management level, coaches level.”

Lindsey said Mitchell, Gobert and the rest of the Jazz have all be participating in group video workouts via FaceTime and Zoom and that the players are eager to reunite.

“There’s going to be another level for the whole team to get back together and I firmly think our gratitude toward each other will be deeper. Deeper because we missed that camaraderie, because we missed that competition,” Lindsey said. “[Mitchell and Gobert] will speak for themselves going forward. But, at the most basic level, they know they need each other to complete their goal of being the last team standing in the NBA.”

When the Jazz might get a chance to compete for a title again, however, remains unclear. NBA leaders have said they will rely on “data, not dates” as they analyze possibilities for returning to play.

“I’m all for naming a champion,” Lindsey said. “Those teams that are in the midst of a playoff chase and a championship chase, we want to compete and name a champion.”

But, Lindsey said, safety remains the Jazz’s and NBA’s top priority. Officials are studying how other sports leagues in Europe are ramping up their own activities. They’re also keeping close tabs on testing and medical advancements that would provide a safe path to resuming play.

“When we do come back, we want our fans and staff to be totally confident in our protocols,” Lindsey said.

For now, Lindsey is excited about the potential to welcome players back inside the Zions Bank Basketball Campus.

“We’re excited … to take that first small step toward returning to play, whenever that happens,” he said. “We miss the competition. We miss the camaraderie. I think you will see a group of players inside the Utah Jazz that will be grateful to get back to work.”

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Utah Jazz excited to soon welcome players back to the team's practice facility, a 'first small step' toward returning to play

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Fourteen days after being tested for COVID-19, all Utah Jazz players and staff have completed their respective periods of isolation and quarantine and have been cleared by the Utah Department of Health.

The UDOH has determined that all Jazz players and staff, including Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert who tested positive for the novel Coronavirus, no longer pose a risk of infection to others.

Jazz players had been in quarantine or isolation since the last-minute postponement of their game in Oklahoma City and the NBA’s subsequent suspension on March 11.

Players stayed in close contact—and in good spirits—during the two weeks.

“We have a Jazz group chat that’s always blowing up,” forward Joe Ingles said.

Ingles stayed busy with his family and by starting up a new podcast, Ingles Insight.

Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell has kept in touch online, streaming video games with his teammates, other NBA players, and famed gamer Ninja.

Forward Georges Niang said he has been doing more reading. The big man has also been working out with his teammates via FaceTime.

“I don’t know what is going to happen with the regular season, but when they’re ready to play we have to be ready to play,” Niang said in an interview on The Zone Sports Network Thursday. “Nobody is going to use the excuse that we were quarantined or anything like that. We have to be ready to go.”

Royce O’Neale has been part of that FaceTime workout group. But O’Neale has also staved off boredom in another way: the Jazz forward has quickly become the team’s most prolific TikTok personality.

Even after being cleared by the health department, all Jazz players and staff will continue to practice distancing while limiting time outside of their home to essential activities, in accordance with recommendations by the NBA and the Centers for Disease Control.

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Utah Jazz players, staff cleared by health department after 14 days of COVID-19 quarantine and isolation

No one can say for sure when your favorite NBA players will be back on the basketball court. As league leaders continue to process information regarding the global Coronavirus pandemic, every contingency is being discussed. But Utah Jazz president Jim Olson promises this: when it is safe to resume games, the Jazz and Vivint Smart Home Arena will be ready.

“We’re focusing on every scenario that could roll out in the next 30 days, 60 days, 90 days,” Olson said in a Thursday morning radio interview with The Zone Sports Network. “We know this is going to end. We know we’re going to play basketball again. … So what is the scenario? If for some great opportunity, that happens in 30 days, we will be ready to open up these doors and put on all the events that we do. If it’s 60 days, we’ll be ready. If it’s 90 days, we’ll be ready.”

It has been just over a week since Utah Jazz All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the virus, and the NBA season was suspended. Since then, Olson said, the Jazz and Larry H. Miller Group of Companies leadership team have been working “nonstop around the clock, trying to figure out what lies ahead” as our community—locally, nationally and globally—faces the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver originally said the league would suspend for 30 days, though he admits that timeline will likely be longer, with the potential to push regular-season games back until June.

“There have been a lot of calls with experts and people trying to guess how long this thing will go,” Olson said. “What I’m going to tell you is, every waking moment, we are considering scenarios to make sure we're in the best position for when those doors open. Yeah, that's an interesting thing. You're preparing for stuff to happen that might not happen, but yet you still have to be prepared for it, no matter if it happens or not. …

“As an example, we've experienced lockouts before and you know, a lockout can end any day. And boy, the minute that lockout ends, we're in business. And so we've got people that are experienced and understand that scenario.”

Utah Jazz players have remained in quarantine since returning to Utah following the positive tests last week in Oklahoma City, but have daily contact with doctors and staff to make sure they are healthy. Olson said the health and wellbeing of Jazz players and staff, as well as the other 10,000-plus LHM employees, has been at the forefront of his mind.

“We've already reached out to every employee,” Olson said. “There's been email communication, conference calls, one-on-one phone calls, making sure people are safe, making sure people aren't experiencing any symptoms of the illness. We are, we are focused on developing both long-term and short-term plans to try to protect our employees the best that we can. I can tell you those, those discussions are still in the works right now but, but there is an enormous commitment to protect our employees.”

Gobert has personally donated $200,000 to help cover the wages of hourly arena employees who are out of work because of the pandemic.

“I'm telling you that 100 percent of the $200,000 that Rudy donated will go to those part-time employees,” Olson said. “There’s the discussion of how it best gets divided up and, and how it gets dispersed and, but that's a huge priority and we're going to have that wrapped up here in the next couple of days.”

Olson urged everyone to practice caution and to adhere to the advice of medical professionals as this community feels the effects of the Coronavirus. He also urged patience and hope that will, eventually, lead to the return of normalcy.

“We're going to be playing basketball games again,” Olson said. “I don't know when, but I know that we will. We're going to have concerts at this venue. We're going to have conventions in this venue. There is going to be an end to this but we don't know exactly what the timeline is going to be.”

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Utah Jazz president Jim Olson: Team preparing for every possible scenario for NBA's eventual return

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz announced today that Donovan Mitchell is helping students in Granite School District obtain a healthy meal at no charge while schools are participating in a closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we all navigate the challenges that have arisen with COVID-19, there are many people impacted. My mom’s career in education made me value children and the importance of academics, and I want to make sure that kids can continue to eat a meal while they can’t go to school.

“Our community is resilient and unified, and seeing how people have come together during this time makes me proud to represent this great state,” said Mitchell, who made the original announcement nationally via ABC Good Morning America today.

Granite School District is transitioning its regular National School Lunch Program sites into what is known as the Seamless Summer Feeding Program during this period. Mitchell’s donation helps subsidize the program for food-insecure students, as many as 10,040 per day, during this non-summer school closure. 

Under this program, any child under the age of 19, including preschool children, can show up at a designated site and eat a meal at no charge. During regular school days, vulnerable students are served meals in programs largely funded by the federal government. This partnership between Mitchell and Granite School District helps address gaps in service while school is out of session and for students who may not typically qualify under the federal guidelines. 

The Granite School District is one of the largest in Utah, with 88 schools serving 67,730 students in Salt Lake City. Granite serves some of Utah’s most vulnerable children, including a large population of refugee students.

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Donovan Mitchell donation supports student meal program during closures in Utah school district

Utah Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell is in isolation but says he feels fine after testing positive for the Coronavirus this week.

Mitchell updated basketball fans on his status in an Instagram video Saturday.

“Just want to say thank you so much for the continued support,” Mitchell said. “It means a lot to me. I feel fine. Things are going well. I’m just taking the proper precautions, as were told to me by the health authorities.”

The 23-year-old Mitchell said he remains in isolation and is keeping busy playing video games. But the Jazz guard is anxious to get back to doing what he loves most.

“I can’t wait to get back out there on the floor and play in front of the best fans in the world,” he said. “I really miss playing in front of you guys. I’ll see you all soon.”

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Utah Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell updates fans on his COVID-19 diagnosis

The Utah Jazz announced today that Rudy Gobert is donating more than $500,000 to support both the employee relief fund at Vivint Smart Home Arena and COVID-related social services relief in Utah, Oklahoma City and within the French health care system.

The pledged donation will provide $200,000 in aid to part-time employees at the home arena of the Utah Jazz who are not able to work due to the postponement of NBA games and other entertainment events, in conjunction with employee assistance efforts already being undertaken by Larry H. Miller Sports &amp; Entertainment.

Additionally, Gobert will contribute $100,000 each to assist families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Utah and Oklahoma City plus 100,000 euros for his native country of France. Emerging areas of pressing need include childcare assistance to health care workers as well as for caregivers to the elderly.

“I am humbled by the tireless efforts and care of people around the globe for those affected by COVID-19, especially my own communities of Utah and France, in addition to my appreciation for the state of Oklahoma and my care there, and of course, my Utah Jazz family,” Gobert said.

“I know there are countless ways that people have been impacted. These donations are a small token that reflect my appreciation and support for all those impacted and are the first of many steps I will take to try and make a positive difference, while continuing to learn more about COVID-19 and educate others. Much gratitude, RG.”

More than 800 part-time employees work events at Vivint Smart Home Arena in various areas such as food service, security, guest services, custodial and more. Four upcoming concerts have been postponed through the end of April, and the Jazz had 10 remaining home games on its schedule before the suspension of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Rudy Gobert contributes $500,000 to part-time employees, COVID-related services

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