Warriors coach Steve Kerr thought his team's season could continue amid the coronavirus outbreak -- until it couldn't.
The NBA suspended its season Wednesday night after Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Golden State hosted the Los Angeles Clippers the night before, despite pleas from the city to cancel games. Kerr said he felt "like a fool" for coaching in front of the Chase Center crowd, and he argued that widespread awareness of the dangers of large gatherings was, and in some ways still is, lacking.
"It’s been disappointing that we haven’t received more guidance about what the real threat is and how collectively and individually we can help turn the tide," Kerr told The Athletic's Anthony Slater in an interview Friday.
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SIGN UP HERE The coronavirus pandemic has brought professional and collegiate sports -- as well as much of everyday life in the United States -- to a grinding halt with numerous municipalities issuing orders to enforce social distancing.
Testing for COVID-19 still isn't readily available, so states, counties and cities are taking action to limit community transmission of the coronavirus and "flatten the curve" of its spread by banning large gatherings and enforcing social distancing. Sports are doing the same, will all four major professional sports leagues in North America suspending or pausing their seasons.
Yet, some people are still congregating. Some Chicagoans partied at bars and restaurants Saturday despite the city's cancellation of its annual St. Patrick's Day events, for example, while The New York Times' Charlie Warzel wrote Saturday that a simple Twitter search revealed plenty are taking social distancing as guidelines rather than changing their behavior.
Kerr, referring to footage circulating of a packed Pepsi Center for a concert a day after the NBA's postponement, implored his Twitter followers to explain social distancing to those they know. He reiterated the concept's importance in his conversation with Slater.
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"The point that needs to get across and what all of us have to understand is that the real threat comes when our healthcare workers are overwhelmed because we have too many patients to take care of," Kerr told Slater. "That’s the real issue. If we don’t have enough hospital beds for patients and a shortage of doctors and nurses and healthcare workers to take care of the sick, that’s when disaster strikes."
[RELATED: For Kerr, Gobert diagnosis was when everything became real]
Experts have argued that the coronavirus' spread in the U.S. is about two weeks behind that of Italy, whose hospitals are being pushed to the brink amid an influx of cases. Social distancing is a means to prevent that end and flattening the curve, ensuring health-care services aren't strained all at once.
"Well, we have to do everything possible to limit our own individual exposure to others and vice versa as best we can," Kerr said. "This is all happening quickly. I didn’t really understand it myself five days ago, four days ago, whenever it was we were playing the Clippers in a full arena."