Chicago Bulls: Players react to COVID-19, NBA season suspension

There were a lot of noteworthy reactions from Chicago Bulls players and other NBA stars to novel coronavirus and the season hiatus.

Shocking news dropped for the NBA on March 11 when it announced that it would be putting the regular season on hiatus. That means that the Chicago Bulls would see their season placed on pause after posting a record of 22-43 through their first 65 games.

The Bulls had their season put on hiatus after a 108-103 win at home at the United Center on March 10 over the Central Division foe Cleveland Cavaliers. The next game for the Bulls would’ve come on March 12 on the road against the Orlando Magic. But the team was flown back from Orlando to Chicago before they could play that game.

When the NBA suspended its season, the March 11 slate of games was to be played out and placed on pause from there. NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced on March 12 on an interview with “Inside the NBA” on TNT that the season would at least be put on hiatus for 30 days.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on his Twitter timeline on March 12 that the NBA issued mandates for all 30 teams particularly pertaining to COVID-19 precautions that would at least be effective through March 16. Those mandates included limitations on player travel and team/group workouts and/or practices.

Along with the announcement of the suspension of the NBA season for now, the G-League and NCAA Tournaments saw an impact. The NBA G-League had its season suspended, and all college basketball conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament were canceled too (per NCAA official release).

Of course with this very shocking announcement, the Bulls players were going to have some crazy reactions on social media too. Especially with the news that Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell joined Rudy Gobert (per ESPN report) as the two NBA players that are known to have tested positive for COVID-19, there’s a lot of reactions from others involved with the league.

Novel coronavirus has pretty much seen every major sporting event domestically canceled or put on hiatus for the time being. The NHL and MLS have suspended their seasons until further notice, and the MLB had to put Opening Day on delay.

But what were the individual player reactions pertinent to Bulls fans from the COVID-19 precautions that have been announced since March 11?

When he heard the news of the NBA putting its 2019-20 season on hiatus on March 11, shooting guard Zach LaVine just tweeted “wow”.

Rookie point guard Coby White just briefly gave his thoughts and prayers in a tweet on March 11 too.

Veteran forward Thaddeus Young retweeted a post from Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams on Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Vince Carter maybe hitting the final three-pointer of his career on March 11.

LaVine also had a birthday on the day that the Bulls played their last game, on March 10. He had a post on his Instagram page on March 10 about his 25th birthday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9lAxfxA49T/

One of the most active tweets, in terms of number of responses and retweets, of late came from Gobert when he made his apology. Most of the responses were not positive after Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, but he did announce that on March 12.

Other NBA stars such as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, Brooklyn Nets injured forward Kevin Durant, and Milwaukee Bucks reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo each had their various posts on Twitter since the NBA was put on hiatus two days ago.

https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1237972755275870208

The latest news coming in showed that the NBA won’t be active again for around another month. The Bulls will have to wait and see what happens in the near future, but the team statement released on March 12 showed that no one on the team showed COVID-19 symptoms yet.

LaVine was working his way back from a quad injury when the NBA hiatus was announced. White was also on a scorching hot scoring streak since the All-Star Break. Where the NBA and the Bulls go from here will be a day-by-day storyline that constantly evolves.