VIRTUAL REALITY
How the sports world was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic
A year ago on March 11, an ever-optimistic sports community in the United States was getting used to the possibility of holding games without fans as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread.
Instead, when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive that evening in Orlando, sports in this country came to a complete halt, one of the clearest cultural indicators that life was about to change dramatically for everyone.
A year later, after more than 500,000 deaths in this country, vaccine distribution is accelerating and sports fans are anticipating the reopening of their stadiums. High school football games will be played this week in Southern California. Fans will be allowed at the baseball openers at Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium. The return to play, and the return of fans, will be emotional, whether that’s on the local football fields or in Southern California’s iconic stadiums. The Rose Bowl is opening its door
to high school football teams this spring.
Since that shutdown a year ago, Los Angeles celebrated an NBA championship for the Lakers and a World Series title for the Dodgers in a mostly virtual way this fall. Pent-up demand for the fun, comradery and carefree distraction that sports can offer is high.
After the 1918 flu pandemic, sports fans across the country wanted to gather again. The Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rose Bowl were among stadiums built in the 1920s, allowing for the enthusiastic communal experience fans had missed in isolation.
We expect a similar enthusiasm this spring and summer and in the sports seasons ahead — the Super Bowl, an MLB All-Star Game and the 2028 Olympic Games are around the corner for Los Angeles sports fans.
Here’s a look back from the Southern California News Group sportswriters at how our sports world abruptly shut down a year ago.
Lakers
The morning of March 11, the NBA was preparing for a huge shift: Golden State was to play the next day without fans in the arena. A complete shutdown still seemed a week or more away. Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of the possibility of games being played in an otherwise empty Staples Center, “It’s surreal. But it’s something that we knew was probably coming and it’s unfortunate and hopefully not long lasting.”
Among the questions he was asked, while reporters stood behind a roped-off barrier some 10 feet back from Vogel, was if he had handed out any articles like Warriors coach Steve Kerr, or if a reported stomachache for Dwight Howard could be related to the emerging coronavirus.
Even before the season was suspended after Gobert’s positive test, players had shared sentiments on social media that they were concerned about continuing to play. But only that evening, the decision would be taken out of their hands. It was hard to imagine playing in an empty arena would one day seem like a sign of progress rather than a grim omen.
— Kyle Goon
Clippers
The evening before the NBA suspended play, the Clippers won a sparsely attended game in San Francisco, where Doc Rivers — then the Clippers’ coach — sensed the storm brewing.
“No one was on the streets,” Rivers said. “I remember thinking, ‘This is not good.’
“Selfishly, it was probably the best we were playing,” Rivers added, recalling his team had won seven of eight games. “I didn’t want to shut down.”
But once play stopped, Tyronn Lue — the Clippers’ current coach, who was an assistant on Rivers’ staff last season — said he didn’t imagine it would be for months, or that the season would conclude in a bubble in Florida.
Lue said he couldn’t have pictured that the next season would be played mostly in empty arenas with stringent health and safety protocols in place.
“We just thought maybe a week or two and we would get back to work,” said Lue, who spent the hiatus in Denver with Chauncey Billups, who has since joined the Clippers’ coaching staff. “Then I got the call from (President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank)
saying it could be a lot longer . ... It was strange but we got through it, we’re here now and we just try to enjoy the game we love.”
— Mirjam Swanson
Angels
On March 10, 2020, Joe Maddon stood on the field at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Arizona while reporters were in the stands, conducting their first day of “social distance interviews.” The topic was the coronavirus, and the havoc it could bring to the world.
“I’d have to say there has to be a concern,” the Angels manager said. “We didn’t think we’d be at this point when we arrived here in camp and now we’re here. So anything is possible.”
That day the Angels played a typical spring training game in Peoria. Their game in Tempe the next day was rained out, and when players scattered from the ballpark they had no idea that the next time they would return there as a team would be for spring training 2021.
Hours after rain canceled a game, news of Gobert’s positive coronavirus would lead to the cancellation of many more. — Jeff Fletcher
USC
When Gobert was testing positive, USC was holding what would prove to be its only spring football practice of the year. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown approached his press conference playfully holding his shirt over his face, as if he were afraid of getting sick from the media. Little did we know that would be our last in-person press conference at USC for now over a year.
The next day, the Trojans men’s basketball team was scheduled to open its Pac12 Tournament run in Las Vegas. But as the morning progressed, tournaments
across the country were canceled, and soon the dominoes reached the West Coast.
USC, hot off Jonah Mathews’ game-winning shot over UCLA, wouldn’t even get the chance to play in the postseason. The Trojans boarded the bus for a devastatingly quiet ride home from the desert, months of uncertainty ahead of them.
— Adam Grosbard
Ducks
Ryan Getzlaf said one thing with his mouth but something else with his eyes. The Ducks’ longtime captain was worried and his expression betrayed him as he spoke with reporters after a March 11 game against the St. Louis Blues at Honda Center.
He knew the end was near. He knew we knew it, too. But he spoke only of crossing “that bridge when it comes.” Well, it was at hand, as much as Getzlaf preferred not to speak of it. There was zero chance the games would continue beyond that Wednesday. Not for a long time. The NBA announced during the Ducks’ game it would suspend play after Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The NHL issued a news release saying it would continue playing, but that only delayed the inevitable. The league put its season on pause less than 24 hours later.
The Ducks’ season was done.
— Elliott Teaford
Kings
On the evening of March 11, all the Kings players, coaches and reporters had heard the news that the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were called off the court, halting play in the NBA and creating a domino effect that slammed the pause button on sports.
That night’s matchup pitted
the Kings against the Ottawa Senators, with a 7:30 start time that ensured it was the last game of the night and, in turn, the regular season.
The game was uneasy and the environment was sterile, even though it did not forbode the months ahead of cleaning, disinfecting, distancing and myriad precautions.
In fact, the postgame press conference was more human than ever, with chairs arranged around a podium and a level of colloquial, empathetic discourse that transcended the usual stilted exchanges with players and coaches.
Captain Anze Kopitar had the worn look of 60 minutes of hockey but a soft, compassionate look in his eyes. Coach Todd McLellan loosened his laser focus on hockey momentarily to speak of the emotional impact of the day’s events and the uncertainty ahead. Rookie Gabe Vilardi, who was sidelined for the better part of two years with a back condition just prior to the pandemic, spoke of his desire to compete but his understanding of the gravity of the situation, having been in in contact with family in Italy and having seen what happened with its outbreak.
It was a night when the Kings were no longer regal, but rather common people thrust into the same challenges and preoccupations as the rest of the world.
— Andrew Knoll
MLS
Leading up to the start of the Major League Soccer last February, we initially started hearing about the virus in Europe, but I’m not sure many of us took it seriously.
The Galaxy had a couple of preseason games at home that reporters attended, and we went about our normal media availability routine.
Even by the first home game March 7, the virus was still somewhat of an unknown. Thinking back, that was my final night in a regular press box with a normal postgame press conference setting. The next night, LAFC faced Philadelphia in front of a sold-out crowd. There might have been some uncertainty in the back of people’s minds, but for the Southern California soccer community, nearly 48,000 went about business as usual, cheering on their teams on those two nights.
As I left the Galaxy game that Saturday night, I was planning to come out to training during the week in preparation for the next week’s game and the Galaxy had a trip planned to Miami for a game. However, by Thursday, everything changed as not only MLS, but the USL, U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF officially placed their games and seasons on hold.
— Damian Calhoun
Dodgers
It was a rainy night in Arizona. The Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers in a Cactus League game shortened to seven innings by the wet weather. During those seven innings, though, word spread that the NBA had suspended its season in response to Gobert’s positive test for the coronavirus. Players in the dugout followed the story on social media.
“We know as much as you guys do,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said to reporters outside the clubhouse that night.
The next morning, players returned to the Camelback Ranch only to learn MLB had suspended spring training (and eventually the start of its season) as well. At the time, we had no idea how long it would take to return to normal. We’re still waiting.
— Bill Plunkett