MARCH 11 2020

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A duel of Russian pranksters say they duped Prince Harry into believing he was on the phone with climate activist Greta Tumberg and her father. The stunning twist on the grand finale of the bachelor. There's been plenty of talks surrounding where Tom Brady will play next season. White Tampa is another realistic landing spot. Brooklyn goes into staple center and knocks off the Lakers 104-102. The second largest upset lost for the Lakers all season. Russian lawmakers have approved legislation that could let President Vladimir Putin stay in office until 2036. Judgment day for Harvey Weinstein. The convicted rapist and former Hollywood producer faces up to 29 years in prison. Now to the other big story we're covering the coronavirus. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday. We call it half day. Good Wednesday to you. Good morning everybody. Welcome to your new day. It is Wednesday March 11th. Welcome to your Wednesday March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. March 11th. 2020. It's Wednesday March 11th. Don't worry. Be happy. Bobby McFarron turned 70 years old today. I usually get up five o'clock, five-fifteen. I go downstairs, grab some juice, you know, make an egg, go into my home office, and just figure out what emails came at overnight. My name is Dr. Anthony Fauci, and I'm the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. By the time my egg gets finished and I'm ready to eat it and run, I close my computer, get in the car and drive to work. I was scheduled to appear before the Congressional House oversight and reform hearing that I've testified at hundreds and hundreds of hearings, so it's not a big deal for me. I knew I could answer all the questions, so I didn't get particularly carried away about it. 604-45 degrees fair skies right now in New York City. The MTA is wrapping up its disinfecting efforts as they try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Harvey Weinstein is set to be sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court today. My name is Byron Pitts. I'm the co-anchor of Nightline at ABC News based in New York. That day, the big news that I was anticipating was the sentence of Harvey Weinstein. The former movie executive is facing up to 29 years in prison for the third degree rape of actress Jessica Mann and for sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley. By this time, we knew he was gilting, and now the question was, how severe would the punishment be? What statement would be made not just to Harvey Weinstein into his victims, but who all who were concerned and felt touched by the METU movement? How about this Dallas climbing up to the middle gate he's getting the cold. Tonight, our NBA Wednesday double-header tips off in Dallas, Luke and the Mav's hosting "Eagle Yoke" in the Nuggets at 80 Street. The day of March 11th, I slept in because I was not well. My name is Doris Burke, and I am a basketball analyst for ESPN. We've got a transition to Dallas where our very own Doris Burke is. You'll be on the call for the game tonight between the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks. I have a fairly standard game-day routine. I get up, I do some reading and some preparation, I'll make a decision early on the day whether I'm going to work out prior to the production meeting or after, and I knew I wasn't working out. And so I just sort of prepped and I relaxed. I thought about laying down, but I thought don't lay down because you might sleep through the production lunch. Today, the NBA will hold a conference call with all of its owners to discuss the possibility of moving games or playing them without fans. As the severity of the coronavirus intensifies each day, the NBA is considering stricter measures to protect its players. The Ivy League canceled its men's and women's conference basketball tournaments. March Madness is going on as scheduled, at least for now. I'm Scott Van Pelt, I host the Midnight Edition of Sports Center. I often refer to myself as a swing pool, I have a shallow end in a deep end, and I spend a lot of time in the shallow end paying attention to sports because it's my job. Also, I like them. I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland, and went to school with University of Maryland. And not surprisingly, I view things through this prism of Maryland. Maryland was supposed to play an Indianapolis in the Big Ten tournament, they're waiting for Friday night, who is it going to be? I remember I had a friend that was going to go, and then they decided not to go, and I said, "You know what, you shouldn't because you're never going to play." And he said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "They'll never get to Friday." My name is Kevin Stitt, and I'm governor of the great state of Oklahoma. It's 64 here in Oklahoma City, a Netflix documentary about Oklahoma's self-proclaimed Tiger King. Joe Exotic is set to release this month. March 11th, it was a normal day, we were going about our business, we were gearing up, all the pools, we were doing March Madness. Big 12 tournament starts today, Oklahoma State plays Iowa State, I expect them to win that game, and there's six o'clocker. Get ready for Kansas. Kansas was who we were, I was projecting. Bill Self is an Oklahoma boy, by the way. And then you get thunder at seven huge game against Utah. This COVID thing. This morning, New York ordering the nation's first containment zone, a governor deploying the National Guard to New Rochelle. It was still something we were watching happen in an unfold in New York and California. There's growing frustration on that cruise ship docked in California, getting everyone off the ship is taking longer than expected. I think I was just still unsure, is this really going to hit Oklahoma? How serious do we need to take it as a state? We had two cases at that point. I think we'd had our first case five days before March 11th. A woman in her 20s who recently traveled to Italy is likely Tulsa County and Oklahoma's second case of COVID-19. We had a conversation with the driver, and the driver was telling us that there wasn't many cases of the coronavirus in Oklahoma City. I want to say there was only like two in Tulsa, but none at the time in Oklahoma City. The driver was like, "We hasn't hit us here." You know, hasn't hit us here yet. We traveled a lot, we're in the music industry. Oh really? What can I have? I'm doing the halftime show for the Thunder today. Awesome! Hello, my name is Frankie J, and I'm an artist. I'm excited about it. R&B. Well, the Thunder staff asked us to go to the clinic. Good morning. It is a brand new day. And we're off to the dock. And we had to do it. Like, if we did not do it, I was not going to be able to perform or my guys would not be able to walk into the arena. Can you believe we got to go to a clinic right now and get checked for coronavirus? What have they done? They did not do the whole swab, you know, up to nose thing. All they did was just temperature, heartbeat, and you know, our breathing. That's when we started thinking like, okay, this is definitely going to be a different rodeo here. My name's Sarah Todd. I'm the Utah Jazz Beat reporter at the Deseret News. I'd gotten in to Oklahoma City late on the night of March 10th. You know, it's not going to work. Would we want it to work? Yes! So I know that I went to sleep late, catching up on the bachelor. I'm telling you, I am telling you that I love Madison and that should be enough. And so I remember getting the text that we didn't need to go to the arena. Instead, they were going to do their media availability from the team hotel. And I remember thinking, "I can sleep for like 10 more minutes." Rudy Gobert is one of two stars on that jazz team. And so he's one of the guys that we talk to every single day. But he was not available because him and Emmanuel Moudier were not feeling well that day. And so he didn't take part in shoot-around. So we talked to a quince-nighter, the head coach, and Donovan Mitchell that morning. Myself, Tony Jones, and Andy Larson, the other beat reporters for the jazz. We were sort of discussing, like, "Oh, Twitter's going to go a little crazy if we say that Rudy's sick." You know, maybe we should ask PR if they can tell us. Just give us sort of a definitive note, "Is this coronavirus? Is it not?" And so we did ask. And they said, "We can't confirm or deny anything. We can't say exactly what it is. He's sick, that's it." My name is Rob Hennegan. I'm the vice president of basketball operations for the Thunder. Probably right after shoot-around, I want to say. Someone for the jazz actually made us aware that a player in their travel party was presenting symptoms. There's only so much you can share when it comes to a medical situation. We didn't know who it was or if it was coronavirus. I remember at the brunch after shoot-around, our coaches and the training staff and the medical staff, all at one table, literally, just like in like deep talks and us kind of being like, "Yo, what's going on? I'm Jordan Clarkson, six men for the Utah Jazz." We was kind of scared because the information that we got from the team was like, they were going to get tested for like flu and everything else first, but they were like, "If somebody comes up negative with those, they'll get tested for coronavirus." The Emmanuel had got, he was like, I think he was positive for the flu or something. And I think really tested negative on all those tests. I'm really good player and I play for the Utah Jazz. The first day, I'm just waking up with a little cold. Life fever, just like I had a thousand times before in my life. When we found out that I tested negative for the flu and, you know, dark kind of viruses, the medical staff and all of a story was better for me. He was smart to go and try to see if he wasn't the coronavirus. So we went to the Oklahoma City Medical Center and got me tested for it. As anxiety mounts, medical professionals and potential patients sounding the alarm that there aren't enough testing kits to keep up with the growing numbers. More schools and universities are closing Harvard universities, giving students five days to move out of the dorms. Popular Music Festival Coachella postponed until October. Major companies like Apple and Google encouraging their employees to work from home. At that time, there were a little bit more than a thousand cases in the United States and 29 deaths that became a big emergency. Right now, the nation's top infectious disease expert is testifying on Capitol Hill. I'm trying to help the American people know where to appropriately set their gauge. I think you said the gauge is that this is a really serious problem that we have to take seriously. I mean, people always say, well, the flu, you know, the flu does this, the flu does that. The flu has a mortality of 0.1%. This has a mortality of 10 times that. I think one of the basketball tournaments, I think, for the Ivy League, they've cut off their terminal together. On the other, nobody talks about, you know, every night they play like, I don't know, eight to ten NBA games and nobody talks about shutting them down. Is the NBA underreacting or is the Ivy League overreacting? We would recommend that there not be large crowds. If that means not having any people in the audience or the NBA plays, so be it. I gave very serious warnings about what was ahead. Is the worst yet to come, Dr. Fauci? Yes, it is. Bottom line, it's going to get worse. And right away, click, click, click, click. You know, see spans going crazy. Everybody's tweeting that Fauci says it's going to get worse before it gets better. I want to inform members that we have a change in schedule. We whispered in their ear that I have to leave at 11.45 instead of 12. President Trump and Vice President Pence have called our witnesses to an emergency meeting at the White House. People thought that the president was looking at the C-SPAN version and said, get Tony the hell out of there and bring him to the Overloafers because I was giving a Doomsday scenario, which wasn't the case. There was a pre-scheduled meeting at the White House and they were waiting for me. I have got to jump to breaking news. Just came in. They're just telling me in my ear, this just into CNN, 23 years in prison. That is the sentence that has been handed down for Harvey Weinstein. We were shaping the show at Nightline. We're going to focus on this one Harvey Weinstein story for our entire broadcast. Miriam Haley, one of the accusers, stood before the court today and talked about what she had gone through. For the last two years, her life has been nothing but paranoia, believing there would be retaliation against her. And she said that she is so grateful for the conviction because now he will not offend against anyone else. I live within walking distance of the office, which is a sometimes a blessing and sometimes not. And so I was going to go home like I usually do, have lunch, take a nap. I probably had like my coat on, my Yankees cap in my hand, and I'm about ready to get out the building. When we start hearing word that there might be this big announcement from the World Health Organization, we have rang the Alan Bell loud and clear. I recognize that my day, our day at Nightline was about to change. Breaking news, the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus a pandemic. The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak of pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It's confirming more than 120,000 cases in 114 countries on six continents. This is a major, major announcement. New developments in the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic. We are learning about the possibility of an oval office address from the President of the United States. As you know, the President's got this interesting relationship with me, he loves me or he hates me. But that day, I think he loved me. The President wanted me to come to the oval office at 1230 for a meeting about travel restrictions that were being discussed. At the meeting, we had Bob Redfield, Debbie Bergs, Alex Azar, they had argued we should restrict all travel from the 26 European countries that are in the Shengen countries. That's the first time I heard the word. I didn't know it's Shengen meant. That's apparently the European Union countries, not the UK. So we went in and presented to the President that we needed to shut down the Shengen countries, because this would be a real problem of infection. Now, the economists were getting very concerned this would cause not only a recession, but a depression. One executive says the coronavirus could have a bigger impact on the airline industry than 9/11. An 11 year bull market that survived hurricanes, a trade war and political upheaval was finally brought to an end today by the coronavirus. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1400 points. We are officially in a bear market. The Dow and the S&P 500 have wiped out more than $5 trillion in value in just the last couple of weeks. The President, he asked a lot of good questions, many of them were directed to me, and quite interestingly, he agreed. Even though he was concerned about the economy, he said he was more concerned about infections coming into the country. The President turned to Steve Miller and Jared and said, "Okay, get a speech ready. We're going to make this announcement." We got some breaking news for you related to coronavirus. The city of San Francisco has followed the lead of neighboring Santa Clara County and banned all gatherings of a thousand people or more for two weeks. That ban will include warriors games, which means yes, the warriors plan to play tomorrow night's game without fans. So the NBA, be firstly forced to make a move to combat coronavirus fears, Ramona Shelvern. Up until about one second ago, you were working the phone and through our tape time right now, we're hearing owners in the league are meeting. I've been trying to text different owners and different team presidents trying to find out what they had said. the expectation was the thing they were going to talk about was the potential of playing games with a limited amount of fans. There's an increasing belief among teams throughout the league. That's where they will all eventually end up here with no fans in arenas. They're not quite there yet. That's part of what's being discussed. And that's what I thought we were going to be covering that night. One of the shutting down games in LA or games in New York to fans. That's what seemed like the furthest it would go that night. Back to the NBA tonight's games there. They're being played as scheduled, including a double header here on ESPN. At 80's, they're in Nikolae Yokech and the nuggets travel to Dallas to take on Luca and the Mavs. Per more on the NBA tonight, Tom Rinaldi joins his court side from the big game in Dallas and Tom. What can you tell us? Sage, that in essence, this could be an effective snapshot in time of the future to come. I remember we got to the arena and the earliest fans who showed up were receiving little bottles of hand sanitizer. And Dallas, a different kind of night for fans arriving in American Airlines arena, receiving hand sanitizer. So wow, how different is that? Here we are in a building in Dallas packed with people. 20,000 announced yet another sellout. It was packed. And I was taking pictures with fans. And you know, you're leaning in and you're smiling and you're engaging with the fans because they're as excited for the game as you are. The whole feel around that game, I can only describe it as strange. Instead of asking assistant coaches and players what they thought of the match-up, I was asking everyone how much a part of the conversation amongst the players is the virus. There was just this feel around the game in every circumstance that made it feel like something was coming. In Oklahoma City, the Utah Jazz, getting set to take on Oklahoma City Thunder, tonight as it currently stands right now, Utah and O.K.C. would meet in the first round of the playoffs. I'm getting on the last bus, the arena, and I had my pitiolite in my hand that I was drinking, trying to get hydrated for the game. I still don't see those guys, Rudy and Emanuel. You know, we're all in a group message, texting each other. Like, "Yo, what's going on? What's going on?" Like, "Yo, y'all coming to the game? Y'all coming to the game." Rudy checks back and just said, "Oh, I'm waiting." The whole day in Oklahoma City and the day of the game, I actually stayed in my room until we were going to know if I had it or not. The goal was really for me to hopefully get the results before the game and if the results were negative, I was going to play the game. You excited about Thunder game tonight? I think this could be a good game tonight. I have socks I wear to the games. It's one of those feels like if you don't have something like that on and you might be the reason that the team loses. My name is Evander Pitman. I have been a Thunder fan since the Thunder has been here in Oklahoma. You can't say anything bad about the Thunder especially around my uncle. I always ride with him down there to the game and we'll listen to our local sports radio show about what's going on with the game that night. Well, he's, uh, number one, Go Bear is questionable with an illness. So I don't know that Go Bear is going to play tonight. That would be huge for the Thunder. And if the Thunder went a night there and they're in the foreseed, right? That's right. It's a big game. It's a big game. I went home in around five and my commerce department called and said, "Gelvin, we really need you to come over and meet this company. They were hosting it at the Thunder game." So I grabbed my 10 year old son in the Remington and I said, "Hey, grab your basketball and your Sharpie. We're going to stop by the Thunder game tonight and we'll get you some autographs." As you go through the look curtains into the stadium, it was like walking into mayhem. Everyone was ready for the game, pumped up. It was packed. Oklahoma City of Rip is like one of the hardest arrangements to play and they're very loud. The crowd was very into it and, you know, electric. There's a restaurant there in the first level of the where the Thunder play and we walked over, I sat down and started visiting with this company. And my cell phone rang. So this is about 650 and I looked at it and I was in the middle of conversation and it was my Commissioner of Health and I turned it over. I was going to ignore it and I thought, "Oh, man." And he normally doesn't call me on my cell phone so I told him. I said, "Excuse me just a second. I stepped away from the table." And my Commissioner of Health said, "Gelvin," he said, "I need to tell you something." He said, "The Utah Jazz, one of their players got sick and so we tested him and. " He tested positive for COVID. He said, "Where are you at?" I said, "Well, I'm at the Thunder game." And I said, "Who knows?" And he said, "Nobody knows at this point. You're my first phone call." I said, "Okay, we'll stand by." I told my security, "Hey, you'll get Clay Bennett, owner of the Thunder." I said, "I need to meet him in a comfort room right now." I mean, this is like 6.55, tip-offs at 7. Everything was going as normal. Music was playing. Everybody's up, jumping up, you know screaming. T-shirts were being handed out to fans. The starters were introduced. There was a small group of us that were meeting down in San Presbyter General Manager's office, Sam and the Governor at Clay, and a few folks from our business office and basketball ops. In the bowels of Chesapeake Arena, trying to figure out what the eggs going on. So we got Adam Silver on the phone and Bennett was saying, "Hey, what's NBA's policy on this?" And they said, "We don't really have one. It's a state issue. What's the state's position?" You know, there was this heightened sense of, "Okay, we really have to make a quick decision, but we have to make the right decision." So Clay Bennett, Adam Silver, our Commissioner of Health and in San Presbyter, the four of us made the decision. "Hey, we probably need to call this out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of Oklahoma's and the players that are out there." "Hi, I'm Billy Donovan, former coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. I would say that, for the most part, everything was all the way normal, all the way up to the tip." "So we were all locked in going through, you know, lay up lines. Then you hear the buzzer ring, and we're all kind of like huddled up." "They were literally going to get the tip of the game off. Like, the referee standing there with the ball in his hand, everybody's standing around in the circle, going to get ready, jump off of the ball. And you see the team doctor run out of the tunnel." "I saw our head medical guy, Donnie Shrack. I just saw him run across the floor." "And I remember Sam just turning to Donnie and saying, you know, don't let the game start. Don't let him tip the ball. And we just, we sprinted out there." "And as that happened, Rob Henning and he came running across the field." "Donnie and I got with the officials and just explained the situation and the officials were totally wide eyed." "And the officials basically held both teams at their benches." "It felt like someone had just hit the slow-mo button because the game wasn't starting." "The officials brought us to half court. They were like, listen, we got word from the league. We need to postpone the game." "And I'm like, okay, what is going on?" "And then, Quinn, at that point in time, just said, hey, listen, we think that Rudy Gover may have a positive test for COVID-19." "And I'm like COVID-19. What's COVID-19?" "And he's like the coronavirus." "We sit right behind a thundered bench and you see the coaches, they have like a look of, you know, worry on their faces." "The officials said, listen, we've got to stop this game and they're waiting for more clarity on the results." "So the best thing to do is just to go back into the locker room and wait, you know, for further instructions." "And you see the teams heading back to the locker room." "As I was walking off the court, I think the PA announcer just made a statement that the game was being delayed." "We've been in confirmation to start the game." "I'm recovering the NBA for eight years. I've never heard of anybody needing confirmation to start a game and I've definitely never heard of it not coming through." "We just walked back to the locker room and it was just like, wow, who has it?" "I was in my hotel room in Oklahoma City and I was getting ready to watch my team play against the tender and when I saw that some doctors ran on the floor and stopped the game, that's why I knew that something was going on." "I mean, I wasn't even nervous. I was going to get the call and a few seconds later I get the call from the trainer." "He told me that I tested positive." "Our first game of our double header was Mavericks Nuggets. My name is Marco Alfonderry. I am the producer of Sports Center with Scott Vampel." "Wend's days are unique in that this year. We started doing half times of both games for the double header." "Luke and the Mav's hosting, Nicola Yokic and the Nuggets at 80's turn, then Zion and the Pelicans taking our buddy healed in the game." We meet every night at 530 Eastern Time, talk about what we want to do, stroll over the cafeteria, grab some dinner. Scott has his diet coax and his hundred grand bars that he likes to get. I like flaming hot cheetos. We sit in a, we call it the fish bowl, and so if you can picture a wall with one, two, three, four, maybe five monitors and then one wall with a giant television. We're sitting in that room that night and you're looking up and you're watching and now at some point we look up and we're like, well what are they doing? What is going on in Oklahoma City? They're supposed to be playing, why aren't they playing? Not too long after that, you got to get up to the set, what would you just come on with you? He doesn't bring his phone, he's not watching anything down there as he's getting set. When he's down in the studio, I'm really his eyes and ears. Hold on, Marco, what are we going to do here? Everything is from his, from his lipstick, to my ears, to out of my mouth, to whoever we're talking to, he doesn't. Okay, okay. When we were holding hands in the dark, tiptoeing our way towards who knew what? We'll get back to the second quarter of our game in just a moment. I'm Scott Van Peltz and breaking news out of Oklahoma City. In that moment, without the team on the floor when the game is supposed to be starting, they just started throwing everything they had at the court. They were a t-shirt, cannons being shot off. The mascot was out, there were dancers that came out. The local reporter sitting to my right pointed to a tweet on his computer screen and it said that law enforcement was on its way to the arena to evacuate it. The first thing that I thought was, you know, is something bad happening in the building, is this a bomb threat. We didn't want to panic anyone, so how do we dismiss the stadium? Was Clay Bennett going to make the announcement and his team was like, "No, no, no, you're not going to make the announcement?" Clay said, "You want to go out and make the announcement, Governor?" And my team was like, "No, no, no, you're not going to say anything, Governor." And so a couple guys, and they said, "Well, how about if we pull the fire alarm and Clay just went berserk on the two people that said that?" Like, that was the stupidest thing he's ever heard of. We ultimately just said, "No, let's just have the announcer do it." They got their halftime entertainment to kind of come forward and nobody really knew what was going on. All right, well, before the game starts, you're going up. They announced it was Frankie Jay, and I was like, "Wow, this guy's good." Kind of made things seem even more unstable, because it was like, "Why is this happening?" All these different emotions I'm running through, I am nervous. My mind is scattered. Clay and I went out and sat on the front row there at his normal seats, and we were waiting for the entertainment to finish and wait for the announcement. I remember looking over at Clay, and I was with my son, and he was sitting there next to his wife, and I could just see his face. He didn't want to disappoint his fans and let his fans leave. I remember his wife was kind of rubbing his back, and he was going to be okay to her husband, and he was very somber in the moment. That may have been one of the first pre-game halftime shows in NBA history, and he did a heck of a job with it. Well, the last song that I performed, I think it was Sugar Sugar. You know, the crowd is singing along to it. And as I'm kind of stepping out, that's when I hear the voice. I was like, "Oh man, this is not happening. I literally have to be escorted out," because we didn't know how the crowd was going to react. No one feels safe when they hear that, especially in a building with 20,000 people. To myself, I'm like, "Man, sports is over with." Like, this may be the end of sports for the rest of the year. I called my editor, "What's going on with this Go Bear thing? Does he have it?" And she's like, "That's what we're hearing." And I was like, "Holy shit." He has it. Like, "Oh my God." And it didn't take long for you to realize that if Rudy Go Bear was positive, there was a chance that just about every single player on every single team could have been exposed. Just based on who they had all played in the last 14 days. Good evening. We're coming in there right now because President Trump is about to address the nation from the Oval Office on the coronavirus crisis. I helped in reviewing the speech. By the time we finished, it was pretty late. And I got home essentially just in time. But the adrenaline and the energy of having gone head-to-head with the President, having helped with the editing of the speech, getting my ass back to the NIH I was exhausted. My wife puts together some food and a glass of beer. I remember it was Lagonitas IPA. And I sat down and I watched the speech. My fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak with you about our nation's unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world. After consulting with our top government health professionals, I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well-being of all Americans. To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. You know, the President's speech writers took some stuff out that I wanted to kept in. They kept in some stuff that I wanted to take out. This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history. The virus will not have a chance against us. No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States. But at the end of the day, it was a reasonable speech that reflected what the discussions were in the Oval Office. Our future remains brighter than anyone can imagine. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you. Now, other than a declaration of war or major terrorist event, in a generation we have not heard a message from the President as serious as the one that was just delivered by President Donald John Trump, the headline. For the next 30 days, no travel from Europe to the United States. That is stunning. That is going to cause major disruptions. Our President is suspending all travel from Europe the next 30 days. That's the announcement, yeah. You know what it is? I thought we had a plan for a show tonight and he keeps getting hijacked every 20 seconds. And then all of a sudden it was rude to go a bear test positive. President Trump gives his address. Oh my god, Tom Hanks. What? Tom Hanks has it. It was how the Tom Hanks get it. This is surprising George just coming across Twitter that Tom and Rita Hanks down in Australia announced that they were feeling run down with some body aches fever fatigue. They were tested and both tested positive for the coronavirus. Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are down in Australia. We just found out. And so about this time I go down to the studio. It's usually just myself and the Florida director. Michelle Meyer, she is a legendary figure in our business. She was Peter Jennings, Florida director when he was the anchor of World News Tonight. She's seen a lot of bad things happen on her watch three or four times. She's looking at her phone and then she says something like, "Oh shit!" And when something like her says that, you think, "Uh oh, I better pay attention." And I think she said again, "Oh shit, the NBA just suspended a season." The NBA has just suspended its season until further notice. There's a moment where you're in your ear. Your producer says, "All right, the NBA is just suspended the season. The season is suspended. Woj is going to join us and you're in your head, you're hearing that and you're going, "Wait what?" Rudy Goldberg has tested positive for the coronavirus. Starting tomorrow, NBA play is suspended. This is the last night of NBA games for the foreseeable future. Woj reporting that, "Hey, NBA is shut down. This Freddie is huge. We cannot emphasize how big this is. There's no levity you can bring to this. There's no nothing." The odd role that basketball is playing in our national confrontation of the reality of the coronavirus crisis. It's oh my god. And God, the NBA is such an ingrained part of American culture that it almost is sacrosanct. To be able to suspend that means something really, really serious is going on. At that point, at nightline, people who are working on Harvey Weinstein, cast to decide, you know, they're working on the pandemic. This is a time to be honest with one another. We are in a new normal. This is getting real for a lot of people. This is real and this is happening. This made this real. This just got real. It's going to be very real and for a while. Stay with us. You're welcome to be back for a side ride, root all off side doors first. Once we received the news, your ability to concentrate on the action in front of you became distinctly hard. I mean, it was hard. But then you have to come to grips with the fact that you still are on national television and that you still have a responsibility to your viewers. Well, let's watch Luca Doncher choose normal pick and roll partner is Chris Stapp's poor Zingas tonight. It's been this guy. This is where the play by play this job becomes an intricate and delicate dance. My name is Ian Grooke. I'm a NBA producer at ESPN. Jeff Evers, our director. He knew once that moment was announced that honestly, the probably highest profile person in that building was Mark Cuban, probably the highest profile owner in our league. And I remember he told our camera six, hey, stay on Mark Cuban. You could see right here the reaction from Mark Cuban when he got the news looking at his phone. It is one of the most indelible images I've ever seen. The absolute shock that crosses Mark Cuban's face. It's a man in a chair looking down at his phone and whiplashing back into his seat. You know, my first thought to Tom was, can we get Mark Cuban? Mark first reaction, we got the shot of you reacting on the phone and seeing it. This reaction and thought when you learned that the season has been suspended. This is crazy. This can't be true. I mean, it's not within the realm of possibilities, it's just to seem more like out of a movie than reality. Tom is in the middle of his interview with Mark. We're supposed to go to break. At that point, I'm like, guys, we ain't going to break. This is too good. I mean, I walked over to my wife. It's like, do we send our kids to school tomorrow? You know, is it that big and, again, you know, it's like out of a movie, it's not even a movie. We finished the interview and he looked at me like he was still stunned. And I looked at him, I know like I was stunned. And it's the only thing I could think of to say to him again was, thanks and good luck. It felt a little chaotic and it absolutely felt surreal. It may have been the most strange feeling I've ever had on a telecast, and I've been doing it since 1990. And our thoughts to all of us in this country, obviously, we have weighty things that we're dealing with at this moment. And we have an interesting, interesting next couple of days. Sore here in Dallas, the Mavericks 1/13, the Nuggets 97, special thanks to our producer Ian Grucke, Tom Randall, B. Dorisbrook, and our entire ESPN crew, I'm Ryan Grucke. What I felt before the game was this touch of anxiety. What I felt in the aftermath of that game was the beginning of fear. This entire evening began to somewhat unravel in Oklahoma City. Roy Schung joins us now and Royce, I realize you've been in the tunnel there and boots on the ground, so to speak. Yes, Scott, no player has left the arena yet. So from what we understand right now, the players are being, I don't know if I want to call it held behind those double doors, but they are not leaving. Getting a lot of them are confused as to why they are not leaving. When we got back into our locker room, we were sitting around for maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and that's when, you know, front office came in, medical came in, and they never used Rudy Gobeer's name. They just said, "A player from Utah has tested positive. This game is going to be canceled. We're not going to play it." And then, hey, listen, we're postponing the rest of the season. Our head trainer, Mike Elliott, came into the locker room and came and told us that Rudy had tested positive. Like real raw reaction is like, "Oh shit, we're fucked. We all have it. It's no way that we all don't have it." But you really don't know where anybody got it from. So we're all like, "No, we're going to be mad at Corona right now." That was it. We were not allowed to leave the building until we had our temperature taken and went through some questions by the doctors. Like, did you come in contact with anybody from the Utah Jazz? Did you shake anybody's hand? Were you near anybody? And once we did that, they let us leave, but we could not walk past Utah's locker room. We had to go out a different exit altogether to get out of the building. Okay. All right. Royce, we're going to be coming to you in just a second, all right? Okay, I'll be ready. I'm watching Thunder Coaches leaving right now behind us. A little of us from Oklahoma City probably got out of the arena by about 9.30. When I got back home, I just flipped on the news just to see what was going on. And I could see that Utah was still there. And they were basically talking about maybe bringing cats in for them to sleep that they may not let them leave the building. At this point, we just in the locker room, calling our friends, family. People asking me questions, like, I was a doctor, like, I knew what was going on. I just like, my life could be in danger for real. There was still one final game left on the schedule. And it was that Pelicans Kings game in Sacramento. That game tonight is between the Kings and the Pelicans. It's scheduled about 10 minutes from now. I say scheduled it. And the same way that finishing that Maverick's game felt odd. The idea of starting the nightcap felt equally odd if not more so. If we know that we're not going to play anymore, then why are we playing this game? We were piecing together the fact that one of the officials in that game had been in the Utah game. And then the Pelicans were like, man, that dude refereed a game with them. We're not playing. Everybody was just like, nah, we're not playing. It's not going to happen tonight. I'm J.J. Reddick. I play for the New Orleans Pelicans. The game that was scheduled between the Pelicans and the Kings, that has been canceled. Leaving the arena was just the weirdest thing. I've got security on one side of me and another player on the other side. And there's fans trying to come over and talk to us. We're like, don't touch us, don't come near us. It was the first time in this whole thing where you realize like we're going to be separated from people for a while. When we get to the hotel, we order a bunch of wine. We're all sort of trying to decompress and come down. We're all scared. We're all on edge, to be honest with you. And at that point, for those two or two and a half hours, it was a lot of phone calls. It was a lot of texting. My wife texting me. She's like, I'm really scared. I'm really scared. I need you to get home. We were supposed to go to Utah next. And once we realized we weren't going to play, then it became about, can we leave now? We all want to get home now. We need to get back to our families now. Scott Van Pelt with you here at ESPN Sports Center. It's about 11 o'clock Eastern time. We were supposed to be bringing you the Pelicans and the Kings. So the fact that they didn't start meant we had to start. And then we did, I don't even know. Like 40-some-odd 50 minutes of, I think, uninterrupted TV, where none of us knew what we were doing. Andrew Lopez joins us now, Tim Legler, alongside Malika, thank you so much for the time and the context. I always appreciate it. I'm going to reiterate and underline it 100 times. And if it's over the top, I don't care. You don't know. Well, hold tight. Tim, hold tight for just a moment. More news from OKC. I remember consciously thinking, I'm freaking out as a sports fan. But don't project that, right? Try to be measured. Try to be quiet. Try to listen to what it is people are saying to you so that you can ask a coherent and thoughtful question next. And Roy Shiong just off the phone with Sam Preshtey and Roy is working to tell us about what he's got to say about situation. Yeah, the thunder have left the arena, Scott. The jazz, though, are still here at the arena. There's a large group that just showed up in the hallway and they closed a curtain off and they didn't want anybody to go back there. And it's pretty obvious that that group of people is here to test the Utah jazz. Me and a few other reporters were able to get into the tunnel and make our way to the area right next to the tunnel that leads to the visiting locker room. And we sat down at this makeshift folding table. We didn't know a lot about the virus. One of the things that we did know was that proximity matter. matters. And proximity to Rudy Gaubert is my job. And so then I start wondering, am I safe? Like, should I be worried? My mother is supposed to travel from California to Utah to visit me in two days. It was just a weird scene because as we're sitting there, I end up crying because I'm scared that I'm going to die. I call my mom. I tell her to cancel the trip. And while we've got like, you know, people in like biohazard suits, it looks like walking towards the locker room. It came in the locker room. They were in like monster's ink suits, like, you know, glass, mass, you know that like full body covered suits, like all the way down to everything. And we were just like, oh wow, this is really seriously. Then I seen one of my teammates. They did his nose thing and he just was over there. Eyes watering, everything. I was like, yeah, it's she like stuck the like swapping super far down his nose. And I just was like, oh no. I ain't gonna be able to do this. I mean, people are on the ground ripping open testing kits because there's just boxes everywhere outside of the locker room. And then they're lining up people like five or six at a time. Like, okay, I've got your name, your name, your name, your name. You're going to come into the locker room, sit in these chairs. And we're going to do this. So it's a long process to get not only all of the jazz traveling party tested, but then the rest of the people, the broadcast crew, all the trainers, and then the three beat reporters. You know, we were told walk back towards the locker room. We're going to let you guys back here. You're going to get tested. The administer the test. They stuck a swab up my nose. All of the men take it like children. I handled it just fine. You know, it wasn't that bad. It was uncomfortable. It didn't hurt. Test is over. They tell us we're going to go back out until a hallway and someone from the Department of Health and someone from the CDC. They're going to talk to us and tell us what the next steps are. And so they start talking to us about, you can't fly commercially. And so we're like, I'm sorry, what? We don't live in Oklahoma. We need to get to Utah. How are we supposed to get home? And he was like, I don't know. Like, great question. At this point, I was just like scared and nervous. Like, I really don't get scared of a lot of things. But at this point, I'm like, man, like, you know, I really kind of just put everything in perspective. Like, we got to like get this out of control and figure out what we're going to do. Figure out really how we're going to get out of here. And if we say to safe enough to leave. So when I want to find out that I was positive, the first thought that came to my mind was, I need to call my mother and make sure that she gets the news from me because she got a tendency to stress a lot over things. And my mom is everything to me. She was actually asleep at the time because of the time difference. So I kept calling. I told myself that I didn't want to go to sleep until I had a told her that she was able to hear my voice. She cried a little bit, but I try to reintroduce her and tell her repeating to her that I was doing fine. And after that, you know, she just went to hear my voice. Driving home that night and the drive home in Connecticut is an interesting one because it's Route 84 late at night. There's no one on the roads. And it's just you and headlights and a dark highway. And it's just a drive home to you. You're driving into a world that just felt like you didn't everything looked familiar, but nothing felt the same. You know, you're just like, like holy shit, what is this all about? Like what is this even going to mean? I was so mad. I was just so I was so bummed out as a fan. That was it. Like everything stops. Because if the NBA is not playing, then college basketball is not playing. And the NHL will take its cues from the NBA. And so we're just not going to play for a while. So you go home and sit there and it's late at night and you're by yourself on a quiet house. And you just, you know, you just, you knew that the direction of the entire 2020 year for the whole world just took a massive turn. I sat in the chair. Michelle and I, we fist pumped because Michelle knew the season broadcast journalists knew that it was going to be a night like few we'd ever experienced in our career. And so I sat there. I had my script. I had my glass of ginger ale on ice and strapped in for what was a long night. This is nightline tonight. The president facing the pandemic. I know from me personally, I was feeling a little shaken. Most times when I cover really bad stories, it means I have to get on a plane to go someplace else. But on March 11th, the bad news wasn't just like outside the door, right? It was around me. It was around all of us. So I wanted to find something that would encourage people. This month marks the 40th anniversary of our broadcast. Nightline was born in response to a crisis, giving facts, context, and when possible comfort is our nation dealt with the Iran hostages. 40 years later, the coronavirus is our new challenge. In many ways, the show went back to where it started. There's a crisis. We're going to find a way to tell this serious story in a narrative way that the average person can understand and that they can go to bed with a sense that this is how it is in the world. And this is the world I will face in the morning when I wake up. It was American businessman Jay Wollett-Mariat who said, "Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the tree. My friends, we are a nation of good timber." That's Nightline for this evening. Thanks for the company America. Good night. Good morning. We get up together on this day in a different place. I literally stayed up the whole night. I remember watching the sunrise. I took a shower. And outside I was in the shower. Mike Elliott calls me again and says, "JC, you're negative. It was just like a sigh of relief. I kind of like failed to my knees in the shower and just was like taking a deep breath and calling my parents." And I got a call that said that I tested negative. I thought, "I dodged a bullet. I didn't know how I did, but I dodged a bullet." We were all rushing down to the lobby if he was negative. Boom, boom, boom. And I remember turning and not seeing Donovan there. I was just like, "Oh." John Stark, Donovan Mitchell, has tested positive for the coronavirus. We sat in that hallway and chatted with Donovan Mitchell for a little bit before we went in and got tested. And they just told me that the incubation period is 14 days. So I'm not safe at all. And so, you know, that night was sleepless and many nights after we're sleepless. Unprecedented day in the world of sports, the coronavirus outbreak, bringing nearly every major sport or sporting event to a halt. The NHL has suspended its season. The NFL has canceled the ATP is announced a six week suspension. Major League Soccer is suspending its entire system. MLB is expected to announce today. They will be suspending all of the NCAA. And indeed, canceling the men's and women's basketball tournament. It's not postponed. It will not happen this year. If the disease hasn't hit a family member or friend, the chances are pretty high. It will. And here at ESPN, it has long time basketball analyst, Doris Burke, has tested positive for COVID-19. It never crossed my mind that I had the virus. And it wasn't until I got home. And day after day started to pass and my fatigue level was not getting better. And now I couldn't get out of bed. If I got out of bed for five minutes, I would look at my daughter and know I have to go back upstairs. What we know now is, when I was interacting with those fans, with the coaches, with the players and with my colleagues, I was unequivocally shutting the virus. And so you have to come to grips with that as a person. Once I started to get better, I literally the only thing I think and even to this day is I'm so thankful to be well. I'm so thankful that I came through it and I am so thankful that I did not get any of my colleagues sick. Because that would have broken my heart. It's three months into this pandemic and tonight America has just crossed that awful milestone. The U.S. has now reached 100,000 lives lost. The pandemic surges across the country. We're approaching 7 million infections. More than 12 million documented COVID infections. The US facing 200,000 coronavirus deaths. We're losing the equivalent of a 9/11 attack every three days in the US. What's gone on between March and now is like, you know, a cement truck dumping all the concrete on my head and trying to, at the same time, drink from a fire hydrant. I think, hopefully, when it's over, we, everybody will realize that we're all in this together. Hopefully, when we come out of this, we're going to have a different perception on, you know, the world and, uh, and the whole to appreciate life. When everything that's going through is there's one thing that you realize is that, uh, you know, you get to enjoy every moment with the people that you love. There's still people that don't take this seriously. Saying the virus doesn't exist. We all know people who have died from this. We all know people who have been hospitalized from this. So, like, I'm sorry, I don't mean to get up, like, worked out about this, but if we live with this thing for five more years and we never get it under control and five million people die, then who the fuck cares with the NBA did on March 11th? You know, I've known a couple people to contract the virus, a new, a guy that passed away from it, you know, so it's like one of those deals where when it comes to my safety and my family's safety, I'd rather be safe than to be at a game, you know, because there's always next season. I've never lived through something like this. I think most people would tell you the same thing. The 2020 has been a very strange year. It's really a watershed moment in American history and you can trace it back to that day on March 11th. Honestly, the more I look back on March 11th, the more I realize that the signs of how seriously we should have taken everything, we're all there. They were all there, blinking lights in front of all of us, blinking lights. Everyone involved in this, like, we all saw it. We just didn't know how big it was really going to be. In a really short amount of time, we went from knowing nothing and taking almost zero precaution to really starting to address this. And so it feels like rude to go bare, testing positive and leading to the NBA shutting down, potentially saved thousands of lives. Right or wrong, sports have an ability to spark national conversation in ways that some others institutions no longer can, or maybe never have. We look to sports for something. Sometimes it's distraction. Sometimes it's passion. But sometimes it's leadership. That's what the NBA provided in this one moment. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional grade products, you can count on to fast, dependable delivery. They're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Granger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRANGER. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Propel Fitness Water With Gatorade Electrolites, Zero Sugar, and Vitamins, Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade Electrolites. Let's rock and roll and we'll try to do this. All right, I think we're good. I think we're golden here. One, two, one, two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. March 11th, 2020, was developed with ESPN Senior Writer, Ramona Shellburn, and inspired by her article, Inside the NBA Coronavirus Shutdown, how a few tens hours changed everything. Senior editorial producer, Julia Lowry Henderson. Senior producer, Kristen Lapis. Production team, Meredith Hoddnott. Andrew Mambo. Riley Bloom. Turwin Graham. Gus Navarro. Executive producers, Erin Leiden, and Libby Geist. Original music, sound design, and mix engineering by Ryan Ross Smith. Project manager and licensing, Kath Stingy. Louise Argeannis and Jennifer Thorpe provided additional licensing support. Executive producers for ESPN, Connor Shell, and Rob King. The ESPN research team provided fact checking. Alan Lau provided legal review. Special thanks to the E60 team, Stacey Pressman, Eve Wolff, and Metric Aboli. All right, all right, we'll talk. Bye, thank you guys. Thank you. Okay, bye-bye. So I can hit stop. [BLANK_AUDIO]