The Potential Overarching Effect of Rudy Gobert Contracting Coronavirus Will Blow Your Mind

When the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were shuffled off the court at the very last second by a panic-stricken team medical official on Wednesday night, that was likely the moment the pandemic became real for a lot of us -- and certainly the moment that many across this country realized that being overly cautious was not a joke or a grift, but rather the bare minimum.

Rudy Gobert did not make his way to the arena on Wednesday, staying isolated to be tested for COVID-19 before ultimately being determined to have the illness. But that does not mean crisis was averted, by any stretch of the imagination.

Gobert's traveled around the country plenty in the last 10 days, and every team he and the Jazz played against has already been told to self-quarantine during the NBA season's suspension.

This is terrifying in and of itself, but when you begin to map the bigger picture together, it becomes clearer and clearer why operations had to be suspended -- and why further steps are certainly coming across other leagues.

The NBA and NHL are intertwined, in terms of arena use, and Gobert shared an away locker room with the Detroit Red Wings' opponent this week, as well as two New York Rangers opponents at Madison Square Garden. This is, of course, not to mention the thousands of attendees in both cities who did not watch Rudy Gobert play this week, but came in contact with the infection he unknowingly traveled with.

Then, there's the chilling fact that, while Gobert's Jazz saw their game suspended, ultimately torpedoing the season, the now-quarantined Knicks were on the court in Atlanta, playing as if nothing had happened, bringing whatever they had with them to an all-new locale.

In fact, it doesn't take much effort to connect the entire league, like a web. All teams can be connected to each other within the past five days.

The NHL, MLB, and the other leagues waiting to take action should not wait around for a positive test, like the NBA just did. After witnessing the events of Wednesday night, it would hardly be overkill to take proper, preventative steps as soon as possible.