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I’m sick of these @#$%ing aftershocks.
OK, got that out of my system.
Anyway, this is normally where I would be providing you with some interesting tidbit from a Jazz practice or shootaround from the Zions Bank Basketball Campus. As I suspect you are aware, there aren’t any of those going on right now.
It seems forever ago at this point that the Jazz-Thunder game was postponed, that Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with COVID-19, that the NBA season was suspended — and it was only a week ago today.
Since then, Jazz coverage has been … well, a little bit different. Andy Larsen and I brought you the story about Rudy’s positive test and the subsequent NBA shutdown. Then came the almost-as-shocking news a day later that Donovan Mitchell had also tested positive, leading to an apology from Rudy. Andy provided a behind-the-scenes look at what happened in OKC; then came the national freak-out a day later, with officials in Rhode Island erroneously suggesting Rudy gave a kid COVID-19 by signing an autograph.
I, a digital recorder-touching victim, wrote a column taking a look at the public scorn being heaped upon Rudy from the vantage point of my quarantine. And on Monday, Donovan appeared on “Good Morning America” and tried to warn people that you don’t need to have symptoms to have the disease.
And so on and so forth.
There’s a bit less sports coverage these days, and that’ll remain the case going forward with everything on hiatus. We’ll bring you relevant coverage where and when we can. But in the interim, you may see me writing about other things … like golf. Because no one knows more about golf than me. Mike Conley and I actually talk about golf all the time. (Narrator: They do not. Ever.)
In the meantime, if you’ve got any Jazz-related questions you want answered or story angles you’d like to see covered, either email me at ewalden@sltrib.com or tweet me @tribjazz.
Otherwise, I’ll just be spending the remainder of my quarantine following the latest NFL free agency news (did my Eagles really need to invest so heavily in another defensive tackle?!), checking out new music (I know people in Utah love The Killers anyway, but seriously, check out their new single “Caution,” featuring an incendiary guitar solo from Lindsey Buckingham), and hoping that future distractions from this Coronavirus pandemic are somewhat more pleasant than a 5.7-magnitude earthquake.
Stay safe everybody.
A few other things …
I don’t really have the stomach to compile every story that’s been written about the Jazz over the past week, partly because there’s just a ton of them, but mostly because a lot of them were reactionary hot garbage not worth passing along. Also, given that we’re dealing now not only with a pandemic but also a quake, let’s just all agree to skip the nonsense.
That said, I’ma keep this short and sweet, so we can all get back to enjoying our presently worry-free lives. Here’s a very short-and-sweet list of links to stories I think are worth your time:
• Lotta people out there deservedly wondering how an NBA team got hooked up with 58 tests when there’s a substantial shortage of them nationwide. Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today has the details, with officials saying the Jazz did not get special treatment.
• Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star took note (accidental pun, I assure you) of all the people excoriating Gobert after his positive test, and took an opposite tack: “Accidental hero Rudy Gobert makes North America sit up and take notice of the coronavirus.”
• And OkayAfrica caught up with Jazz guard and Congolese-born Emmanuel Mudiay, who stuck up for Gobert in an interview, saying: “Rudy is a great guy. He was just trying to be funny and joke around. … Now he knows that it was something serious."
And finally: Read for free!
We at the Tribune know that the coronavirus pandemic and the Wednesday morning earthquake are very much on your minds. That’s why we’ve taken down our paywall for stories related to those two subjects. Right now, you can read for free everything our wonderful group of reporters have written about COVID-19, and also get the most up-to-date info we’ve got on the impact of the quake. Thank you for your support. If you should see fit to donate to us, to enable the Trib to keep providing excellent coverage well into the future, you can donate here.
Thanks, everybody. And remember to wash your hands and practice social distancing!
