Danilo Gallinari Details Uncertainty at Arena After Rudy Gobert's COVID-19 Test

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Danilo Gallinari has spoken about what it was like being at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday before Rudy Gobert's positive diagnosis for the coronavirus was made public. The game that night between the Thunder and Utah Jazz was delayed and then postponed.

"We couldn't really understand what was going on," Gallinari told Marc Stein of the New York Times in an interview Sunday. "We were all shocked. Maybe I was a little less shocked than anybody else knowing what's going in on my country."

Stein reported that Thunder players "were asked to stay in the locker room after the game against Utah was canceled so they could be checked for fevers."

Additionally, Stein reported that "Thunder players were subsequently tested for the coronavirus after the team secured test kits through 'alternative' means so as not to further deplete the supply in Oklahoma, but results had not yet been announced as of Sunday night."

Gallinari, who is Italian, told Stein his family has been "quarantined for some weeks now."

Gallinari said Italy erred in not taking more aggressive measures to self-quarantine and address the coronavirus threat, and he is worried the United States could follow suit.

"It was a mistake that we did as Italian citizens, and I put myself in, too, because I'm Italian even if I live in the States. Of course we did a mistake not taking it seriously in Italy and now we are the second- or third-worst country in the world for this virus," he said. "Hopefully we're not going to make the same mistake in the States."

Gallinari also said he misses basketball but understands the importance of the 30-day hiatus the NBA has undertaken to protect fans and players from the potential spread of COVID-19.

"I want to get back on the court, of course, for many reasons," he told Stein. "But right now this is not a simple and easy situation to solve. This is bigger than basketball, bigger than anything. It's a worldwide problem. So I do want to play basketball, but at the same time I want to know everybody is safe."

It remains unclear when the NBA might resume playing. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday that the league is "bracing for the possibility of mid-to-late June as a best-case scenario for the league's return."

Even then, playing in empty arenas without spectators or canceling games altogether remains a possibility.

The coronavirus has infected over 164,000 people worldwide, leading to 6,470 confirmed deaths, per CNN.com.