The connections in New York City basketball run deep. Generations of boys and young men starred on the playgrounds, on the school courts, on the A.A.U. circuit. If you did not play with someone, you probably played against him.

Across the basketball courts of New York, there aren’t many degrees of separation.

It did not take the coronavirus to know this. But the pandemic has reinforced it — fatally.

David Cain, who grew up in Harlem and played basketball for St. John’s University in the early 1990s, had a birthday coming, his 49th. He spread word that there would be a party on March 14 at Mom’s Cigar & Lounge Warehouse in Scarsdale, a suburb north of the city.

Lee Green, 49, a former St. John’s teammate of his from the Bronx, would serve as the D.J. Dozens of men, mostly in their 40s and 50s, most connected to the web of New York City basketball, would come. They found wipes at the door, then relaxed in the leather chairs, shared drinks and food, and soaked in the smoke and camaraderie.