Hi, I'm Dan Fermak and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by Comcast.

Today is Wednesday, March 10th, and we're looking back at this same week last year, the week that America changed.

This is our COVID-19 decision-maker series. Conversations about some of the most consequential

decisions made this week last year. Today we look at the decision to suspend the NBA's season

with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. On the Wednesday night of that week in 2020, six NBA games

were scheduled to be played, but only four tipped off.

The inflection point was that the league had just had its first player test positive,

Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert.

One of the games that did get played was in Dallas, where Mavericks owner Mark Cuban

was sitting court-side when he got word that the season was suspended,

and television cameras caught his utter disbelief at the news in a video that quickly went viral.

There wouldn't be another NBA game played for five months when the league opened its so-called

bubble in Disney World. Adam Silver joins us with his story of that day, how his decision traveled through the

league and all that led up to a moment that many in the U.S. now describe as when COVID became

real to them.

That conversation in 15 seconds.

Adam, how did you reach the decision to suspend the season?

I began to take it seriously in mid-January because of our presence in China.

We have about 200 people in Beijing and Shanghai, and the head of our China office said,

I don't know what you're reading in the U.S. media, but it looks like we're going to be closing

down our office soon.

And then in terms of my ongoing awareness, I would... media, but it looks like we're going to be closing down our office soon.

...