Priming Theory and the Pandemic
By: Keegan Hartman
I wrote a little about this day previously (in last week’s discussion) but I have been reminded numerous times of the day that “sports stopped” so many times since it happened, which was on the night of March 10th, 2020. When the National Basketball Association (the NBA) decided to officially suspend their season, I could recall being in Nashville, Tennessee, having dinner with my friend Ben, as we were just under 24 hours away from calling the Missouri Tigers first game in the 2020 Men’s SEC Basketball Tournament. The Tigers’ first game, as were many of the tournament’s first day of games, was slated to be played on Saturday, March 11th, as the Tigers were going to be playing the Texas A&M Aggies at 6pm CST.
I vividly recall sitting in Hattie B’s Restaurant, and as Ben and I awaited our orders to be called, Ben and myself started to get numerous notifications from group chats with our colleagues from the radio station (KCOU 88.1FM on the campus of the University of Missouri). As those notifications funneled through, the image that has resonated with me to this day- video rather- plastered to the television within seconds. I remember seeing ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt taking over the airwaves during Friday night’s matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets. It was then that Scott Van Pelt confirmed the news that would forever throw sports in to a world of unknowns:
This little four-minute segment, in my opinion, is some of the most haunting commentary of/from the year of 2020, in that we had never seen something quite like it. Sure, the NBA, as have many sports, had previously went through lock-outs, but those took place at the beginning of a season and the season was eventually played. March 10th, 2020 brought upon so many question marks and the NBA’s move to cancel/postpone their season first was just the beginning of the ensuing 24 hours.
Soon, it threw myself and my friend Ben in to a frenzy- ‘what the hell was next?!’ We had not received an official word from SEC officials as time was waning for us to make final preparations. Essentially, we prepared for six hours late into the night thinking the tournament was going to proceed unless we were instructed otherwise… and nobody from the SEC had instructed us otherwise that evening of March 10th.
It is certain images for me that always bring me back to this day: sitting in Hattie B’s, looking up at the television AT THE EXACT time Scott Van Pelt is addressing the world that the NBA was going to postpone their season. Reading the tweet from ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski (seen above) confirming that the NBA was suspending the season. To this day, it is hard to wrap my head around the fact that March 10th, 2020 was truly the last day of normalcy.
Additionally, during the week of March 10th, the image of Utah Jazz’ Center Rudy Gobert (left) touching all of the media members’ microphones days before he faced the Oklahoma City Thunder. The night of March 10th, Gobert would forever be known as the first NBA player to have tested positive for COVID-19.
I think you could tie framing theory into Rudy Gobert’s story because, when it was reported, people immediately went back to Gobert’s press conference just days before the Jazz played the Thunder and they really pushed this narrative on Rudy. Rudy had tested positive for COVID-19 the night of the game and there were no prior signs of Rudy having COVID-19 leading up to then. Yet, this narrative, framed by the media, almost cost Gobert his career and relationship with the Jazz organization. Granted, looking back on how Rudy handled the situation, yes, that was a serious mistake on Rudy’s part as contact tracing has become a primary reason for the death toll we’ve sustained as a country with COVID-19. However, I don’t think any of us saw what was coming the night of March 10th, nor were prepared for the season to come to an abrupt end off of just one mistake. After Rudy was seemingly blamed for shutting down the NBA, that mistake he made on his media day, Gobert actually got into a conflict with NBA All-Star, Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell, in which Mitchell actually contracted COVID-19 in the days following the tracing. Further, some additional Jazz teammates of Rudy’s had tested positive for COVID-19, and in the days following, a lot of the blaming was pegged on Gobert.
I don’t think that I will ever lose memory of days like March 10th because I was apart of it. Had they would’ve proceeded with having the SEC Tournament (which was a consideration of the SEC… not allowing fans into Bridgestone Arena for the games) I probably would have been apart of something even bigger, but I am also glad that they made the decision to keep everyone safe since this instance was the first of its kind. Yet, these videos, these tweets, these images all depict a day in which America has NOT been normal since. Fans have not been allowed into arenas during NBA games, and if so, minimal capacity. We HAVE, since the pandemic first started, fortunately seen the triumphant return of sports: NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Men and Women’s Basketball, NHL, and MLS have all made their return.
I think the reason that this event remains in my mind, and will forever remain in my mind, is solely for the fact that I have, AND will possibly NEVER live through another day like it. Also, March 10, 2020 seems like an eternity ago, when, in actuality, it was just under year ago from today. A couple of months ago, I came across a podcast, titled “March 11, 2020” which relives the events that took place on March 10th & March 11th. Soon, I think ESPN plans to produce a documentary reliving the events, but this pandemic is still alive and is still unfortunately a burden to us living in normalcy again.
REFERENCES:
Alfandary, M. (Producer). (2020, March 11). NBA Suspends season Due to Corona Virus | SportsCenter [Video file]. Retrieved February 16, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNWBz4GCiUo&t=70s
Trenaman, C. (2020, March 13). Amid COVID-19 OUTBREAK, NBA Star Rudy Gobert Faces backlash For prank. Retrieved February 16, 2021, from https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/12/sport/rudy-gobert-coronavirus-prank-backlash-spt-intl/index.html