Pelicans-Kings game postponed over concern ref worked Utah game earlier in week

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Wednesday night's game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings was postponed minutes before tipoff.

The NBA said "the game was canceled out of an abundance of caution because one of the referees assigned to work in the game also worked a Utah Jazz game earlier this week." The referee was Courtney Kirkland.

Kirkland was one of the officials for the Utah-Toronto tilt Monday in Salt Lake City. Utah center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. That led the Jazz-Thunder game to be postponed and the NBA to suspend its season.

Sources told ESPN's Eric Woodyard that Kirkland was feeling fine but was expecting to be tested Thursday morning.

Before officials announced minutes before the scheduled tipoff that the game had been postponed, New Orleans players expressed concern about Kirkland and never left the opposing team's locker room.

Pelicans coaches came out of their locker room minutes before, and team personnel were hovering around the entrance. Around 10:35 p.m. ET, all team personnel were summoned into the locker room, and shortly after, the game was postponed.

In the minutes after the postponement was announced, Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball found a basketball and ran back onto the court at the Golden 1 Center to take some shots.

With the league set to be shut down for the near future -- and a flight that wasn't leaving Sacramento for another three hours -- Ball figured there was no better way to pass the time since the Pelicans as a team couldn't leave Sacramento until 11 p.m. local time.

Arena officials locked the door that connected the Pelicans' locker room to the court. After convincing security that they should be let through, Brandon Ingram and another Pelicans staffer went to the court to bring Ball back.

Ingram and Ball later walked out of the arena together as the last two players to leave. Ball just shook his head and Ingram told everyone around to "Stay safe."

It was part of the surreal scene throughout the evening in Sacramento.

"I think it's also important to understand that this is not a minor thing by any stretch of the imagination, not just in this country but in the world," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said before the announcement. "You have to do whatever you have to contain it and manage it as best you can."

When the league made its announcement about 70 minutes before the scheduled tipoff in Sacramento, league officials and team officials from both teams were going on as if the game would be played.

The Pelicans' Twitter account sent out a tweet indicating as much. Players from both teams went through their pregame warm-up routines with player development coaches. The Kings took the floor with 16 minutes on the clock, but the Pelicans stayed in the locker room.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.