Adam Silver made the monumental decision to suspend the 2019-20 NBA season from the backseat of a car in Manhattan. Sometime after 8 p.m. on March 11, 2020, he sat outside his New York City apartment building. Urgent discussions with league officials kept him away from dinner with his wife.
Earlier that night, shortly after leaving his office at 645 Fifth Avenue, Silver received a call from NBA general counsel Rick Buchanan. Buchanan informed the NBA commissioner that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID-19. Over the next 90 minutes, Silver guided the league through one of the most frantic nights in its history.