Utah Jazz center Gobert, who sparked NBA shutdown in March 2020, tests positive for COVID-19 again

Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert on Thursday tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time and was placed under the NBA’s virus-related protocols list.

The first time Gobert tested positive for the virus was on March 11, 2020, and prompted a dramatic shut down of the NBA for more than four months as they set up a bubble at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

This time around, Gobert will be required to sit out of Friday’s game against Toronto, according to The Associated Press.

It is unclear at the moment how long Gobert will remain in the league’s COVID-19 protocols, but typically other players have spent about a week out of games, the news outlet noted.

The Jazz reportedly said on Wednesday that Gobert took two rapid tests that day after missing a game due to feeling ill. Both of those tests came back negative at the time.

He later took a PCR test that returned positive, AP reported.

Gobert joins Joe Ingles as the second player to be placed on the Jazz’s protocol list. The team was previously the only one to not have any players enter protocols this season, according to the AP.

The first time Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the NBA didn’t even have health and safety protocols. It prompted a league-wide shutdown just ahead of other sports shutting down in the subsequent days and weeks.