The Washington Wizards has six players who have tested positive for COVID-19, making it a total of nine players who are part of the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
The Wizards had their next two games against the Cleveland Cavaliers – originally scheduled for Sunday and Monday – postponed to Friday. Washington has had four consecutive games postponed since it last played on Jan. 11 in Phoenix.
“It’s just an unfortunate set of circumstances,” wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said in a video call with reporters. “If you watch our play, we really go back to when we were playing Chicago [Dec. 29 and 31], almost every team I played, one player gave positive results. The next day [and] the next day, more players in certain places. It was inevitable.
“The NBA has long indicated that this period will be very difficult. And they weren’t kidding. Every city we went to seemed to be more and more. You never want to say ‘well I escaped’ or ‘nothing it hasn’t gone wrong for us yet, “because you inevitably know that something will be your turn, and that was our turn, unfortunately.”
The Wizards canceled training on Tuesday before the league’s decision to postpone Wednesday’s game against the Utah Jazz. The wizards then listed striker Rui Hachimura and Moe Wagner’s center as questionable over health and safety protocols in the accident report.
Sheppard said the team learned it had reached six positive player cases on Friday. The team hopes that if there are no new positive cases on Saturday, players who are not in quarantine and safety protocols will be able to return to individual training facilities.
Even if the wizards were allowed to return to the field and train, they do not have enough players to practice with so many players either injured, such as Russell Westbrook (quad), or in quarantine or safety protocol.
Westbrook is to be re-evaluated early next week.
“In terms of activity, we were very limited, to zero, in terms of returning to the facility,” Sheppard said. “Certainly, the players who are in quarantine, the players with COVID can’t even solve themselves. If there is no positive test tomorrow, we can bring the boys back to the gym 1 to 0.”
“I think four teams missed more games,” Sheppard added. “And so far I would think it’s a small victory given what is happening there and what could happen.”