After a confusing night around Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant at Barclays Center, which included elimination from the lineup before the game and the third quarter due to contact tracking protocols, Durant will not play in Philadelphia on Saturday and could rate a few games for the second time in a month, sources told ESPN.
Durant contacted an associate on Friday who tested positive for coronavirus on Friday night, hours after an inconclusive test, shortly before the Nets’ 123-117 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
This inspired a dramatic scene in the third quarter: a Nets official informed Durant that he had to leave the bank to isolate himself, prompting one of the franchise’s stars to go through Barclays’ courage, where he probably wrote on Twitter: “Free me” in the last minutes of the game.
The Nets reported the individual’s unfinished test to the league’s office on Friday afternoon, eventually receiving instructions to remove Durant from the warm-ups. Nets general manager Sean Marks was on the phone with the league office and passed on the group’s information on the field.
Moments later, Steve Nash and his coaching staff received the news that Durant would not be available to begin the game.
Durant left the field before the game, only to be released by the NBA to return to the bench shortly after the start of the first quarter.
“Durant was initially out of the game while the result was being reviewed. [de la prueba]”According to the league’s health and safety protocols, it is not necessary for a player to be quarantined until close contact has a confirmed positive test.”
Before Durant left the field for the last time in the third quarter, he sat on the bench while officers reviewed a play in which he had committed the fifth foul of the night. The foul was canceled, but Durant never re-entered.
When the required time expired, a team official told Durant that he would not be able to continue the game. Durant shook his head in frustration. As he returned through the tunnel, Durant tossed his bottle of water.
Durant, who played 19 minutes in the game, continued to tweet on Friday night after the game, questioning the chronology and details of the league.
Following stars LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo ridicule the league and NBPA’s plans for an NBA All-Star game in Atlanta on March 7, a sense of rebellion emerged from the superstars over the weekend.
“I don’t understand everything he couldn’t play in, then he came on the field and then they took him back,” said Nets goalkeeper James Harden. “A lot is happening. Too much is happening. It’s overwhelming. We’re in the middle of a difficult game, and these games will come together, especially if we’re talking about qualifying and playing in the playoffs … pick up the pace. It’s overwhelming. It’s frustrating.”
“[Durant] it feels the same. Especially with him who already had it and we do tests every day. It was negative [en las pruebas]. So I don’t understand what the problem is. The game should have been postponed. If we talk about following contacts. He was close to all of us. So I don’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to play, then he was allowed to play and then he was taken off the field. If that was the case, we should have postponed the game. “
Durant contracted the coronavirus in March and still had those antibodies in early January, when he missed three games due to tracking contacts. Four weeks later, Durant could miss a similar six-day period, sources said.
After Friday’s game, Nash said he sometimes struggled to compartmentalize Durant’s absence during the game.
“I probably had a little fun thinking about what it means for our team in the long run,” Nash said. “We’ve already given a lot of players a lot of minutes and if Kevin doesn’t play, will we continue to add minutes to the other players? So maybe I was a little distracted from the big picture.”
The Nets have road games on Saturday (Philadelphia) and Tuesday (Detroit) and return home on Wednesday (Indiana). The Nets will begin a trip to the West Coast next Saturday against Golden State.