• Stitt talks about being at postponed Thunder game,
On March 11, Gov. Kevin Stitt was the first person in the Chesapeake Energy Arena to know a member of the Utah Jazz had tested positive for COVID-19.
Stitt and state health officials then set into motion a series of events that brought to a screeching halt most sporting events for the foreseeable future.
The governor and his 10-yearold son, Remington, happened to be in attendance at the fateful Oklahoma City Thunder game that marked a growing awareness t hat COVID- 1 9 was spreading throughout the United States.
Around 6:50 p.m ., St itt received a call from someone at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the governor said in a Friday interview on Fox Sports Radio. A spokeswoman for the agency confirmed that call came from Oklahoma Commissioner of Health Gary Cox.
Cox relayed the news that a member of the opposing team, Jazz center Rudy Gobert, tested positive for COVID-19.
“I said, `who knows?'” Stitt said. “They said, `you're the first one. Nobody knows.'”
The Athletic reported a public health official from the State Department of Health called the Utah Jazz about four minutes before tipoff, or 6:56 p.m., to inform team officials of the positive test results.
As for Stitt's reaction to the information, “it was a gut punch,” he told Fox Sports' Clay Travis. The radio interview was the first time Stitt has talked publicly about being in the arena the same day Oklahoma City became ground zero for the larger coronavirus discussion.
Stitt said he immediately relayed the information to Thunder owner Clay Bennett, who called NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The Thunder and Jazz players were then recalled to their respective locker rooms — one of the first public indications something was wrong.
Ultimately, the game was called off, although those in the arena were not told the reasoning behind the cancellation. Before the arena had been cleared of fans, the NBA had suspended its season until further notice.
Stitt said suspending the season was the right call
because there were still so many unknowns about COVID-19 at that time.
“It is kind of a part of history, I think, because this is a watershed moment for all of us in the U.S.” Stitt said. “We were dealing with something that nobody knew exactly how it was affecting or how it was transmitting at that time or how infectious it was and, so out of an abundance of caution, I think we made the right decision that night.”
Later t hat evening, representatives from the State Department of Health tested 58
Jazz players and staff members for COVID-19 before they were allowed to leave the arena.
Stitt said the Utah Jazz later reimbursed Oklahoma for the costs associated with those COVID-19 tests.
“Their ownership was so appreciative, they sent a check back to our state, our Health Department, to cover the costs of those tests," he said. A spokeswoman for the State Department of Health did not respond Friday to a question seeking the amount of money the Jazz paid to the agency.
The testing of Jazz players and staff came at a time when Oklahoma had a limited supply of COVID-19 test kits and was rationing tests to only those who were exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and had been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19 or had recently traveled from an area with ongoing spread of COVID-19.
Oklahoma City Thunder players and staff also got tested at a later point, but that was done through a private lab.
Stitt's interview about that fateful day in March came the same day as Oklahoma began phase one of the state's threephase reopening process.
The governor called the unusual game day ex perience surreal. His son, who had brought to the game a basketball and a black Sharpie, had been hoping to meet some of the Thunder players.
"It was a crazy day," Stitt said. "Then, we were walking through the bottom of the stadium there, and my 10-year-old son turned to Mr. Bennett, the owner of the Thunder, and said 'am I going to be able to get an autograph?'" Stitt said. "Clay said, 'Remington, I'm going to get you all the autographs you want, son.' It was pretty funny."