30 for 30 podcast presents March 11th, 2020, the story of the day, the NBA shut down and the pandemic became real for many Americans is told by those who lived the events of that day and built entirely with archival and exclusive interviews, including interviews with Rudy Gobert and Dr. Anthony Fauci 30 for 30 podcasts presents March 11 2020 subscribe and listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

And now the low welcome to the low post podcast on a Thursday afternoon and it is not just any Thursday at this Thursday March 11th, which I guess will be a date that we will remember forever because it is the day that the NBA shut down and a day that everybody remembers sort of internalizing the idea that this pandemic was going to be real and it was going to be big and it was going to be painful and to help us reflect on that and what has happened since.

Let's bring in Ramona Shelber and we wrote a wonderful story today reflecting on specifically the sort of the NBA angle of.

You know this date and what it means, but also just the larger issues Ramona, how are you?

Do you know, okay, Zach, I think it's interesting this day that you know we always talk about like how long does a year, a couple of years been a year that's passed and I'm like, feels like 10 years in a way, right? Like pandemic years are really long and our lives are so different now, but it was it was interesting going back and kind of tick talking through the last days of our normal life or our previous life until we get to March 11th.

So you talked to Adam Silver, Michelle Roberts, people were at the jazz Thunder game, which I'm going to talk to Roy Schung later today. So I remember that night I had gotten home from the Sloan conference a couple days before that was a huge mistake. Obviously.

Yeah, and I was on my laptop sitting where I usually watch games watching the pistons and the Sixers in Philadelphia because that was just the game I was watching that.

Yeah.

And Christian Wood was having a big game and I remember like Christian was a big game for Christian Wood is playing really well. And then my phone started blowing up with all of these messages like what's happening in Oklahoma City and you got to check out what's happening Oklahoma City and I just thought,

just someone get hurt. Like I think they're playing, you know, they're playing to dunk but Mitchell get hurt like is there a scene like what's going on I flipped over and I thought, whoa boy, this is my night watching the Sixers and the pistons is now over. And this is now the only thing that matters. And like an hour later, the NBA season was over.

So retracing all or temporary lower retracing all of those interviews and all those steps and writing this big story today. What's the like it's so funny. It's not that far to actually look back. But it's also an exercise that I have frankly not really been that interested in doing.

So what what surprised you in doing it.

Yeah, I think what surprised me is that is at the time, I feel like we were all in various states of denial of various states of like, okay, is this like bird flu is this like swine flu is this.

We've seen this happen with viruses around the world and they don't necessarily it doesn't necessarily reach our shores or it reaches our shores, but it's contained. And you know, I remember that I had realized this was a bigger deal because out in California.

And I was like, the, you know, the warriors were planning to play a game without fans that day. And so I knew that was a really big deal. And I'd been talking to both the Lakers Dodgers Clippers, you know, all of the major sports teams out here in LA.

And they were they had been having meetings with, you know, the public health officials. So I knew about a week before how serious this was getting.

And I was like, I'm not even in just when I was reporting to South, we can talk about them silver Michelle Roberts, like, Adam silver literally had had a border governor's meeting that day where they were just talking about the possibility of playing without fans.

I remember reporting on it and some, some people in the league being like, is this really necessary? The economic hit of just this is going to be a big deal.

Trying to figure out what had happened in that call and like rushing to do it for a new story, which in retrospect seems like I should have been rushing to do many other things.

It feels pretty small, right? And so I felt, you know, I thought one year later, if I ask Adam, what he really thought was going to happen back then, you know, I remember saying it was actually the last question of our interview.

I said, you know, what did you think was going to happen when you shut down the league of March 11? And he goes, I think I just thought we would shut down for 30 days and we come up with some new protocols and then we'd be back in arenas with with or without fans, they probably without fans.

And I was like, really, like, you didn't when you said shut down definitely, I mean, I that landed to me like a thunderbolt like whoa, what doesn't I literally remember sending a text to someone in the league saying, what does indefinitely mean.

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