Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant will not be traveling and may play several games due to contact tracing protocols

After a turbulent night surrounding the status of Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant at the Barclays Center – which includes being pulled out of the series for contact detection protocols in the preseason and third quarter – Durant will not travel to Philadelphia on Saturday ESPN says sources could be lost for the second time in a month for multiple games.

Durant came into contact Friday with an associate who tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday night, hours after returning an unconvincing Test shortly before the Nets’ 123-117 defeat to the Toronto Raptors.

It inspired the most dramatic scene in the third quarter: a Nets official telling Durant he had to leave the bank for solitary confinement, causing a frustrated franchise star to squeeze into Barclays’ gut, where he allegedly tweeted: ‘Free Me’ in the last minutes of the match.

The Nets informed the league office on Friday afternoon of the individual’s unconvincing test and were finally instructed to remove Durant from the warm-up match. Nets general manager Sean Marks called the league office and notified the court.

Moments later, Steve Nash and his coaching staff found out that Durant would not be available to start the game.

Durant left the floor before the game, only to leave the NBA to return to the bench shortly after the start of the first quarter.

“Durant was initially kept out of the game while the result was reviewed,” reads the league statement. “According to the league’s health and safety protocols, we do not have to quarantine a player before a close contact has a positive test.”

Before Durant left the court for the last time during the third quarter, he sat on the bench while officials revised a play in which he picked up his fifth offense of the evening. The violation was overturned, but Durant never checked in again.

When the timeout came to an end, a team official told Durant that he would not be able to continue in the game. Durant shakes his head in apparent frustration. As he walked back through the tunnel, Durant threw his water bottle.

Durant, who played 19 minutes in the game, continued to tweet after the game on Friday night, question the league’s timeline and details.

On the heels of NBA stars LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ridicule the NBA and the NBPA’s plans for an All-Star game in Atlanta on March 7, have a sense of superstar revolt in the late week arises.

“I do not understand the whole thing where he could not play, then he came on the field and then they took him back,” said James Harden, Nets guard. “There’s just a lot going on. There’s too much going on. It’s overwhelming. We’re in the middle of a tough game, and these games are going to pick up, especially when we talk about the playoffs … around a “It’s overwhelming. It’s frustrating.”

“[Durant] feel the same way. Especially with the fact that he already has it and we are tested every day. He was negative. So I do not understand what the problem is. The match had to be postponed, I feel like. If we talk about contact tracing. He was around us all. So I do not understand why he is not allowed to play, then he is allowed to play and then be taken back from the court. If that was the case, we should have postponed the match. ‘

Durant contracted the coronavirus in March and still had antibodies in early January when he was lost for four games due to contact detection. Four weeks later, Durant could be lost for a similar period of six days, sources said.

After Friday’s game, Nash said he sometimes struggled to compartmentalize Durant’s absence during the game.

“I was probably a little distracted and thinking about what this means for our team in the long run,” Nash said. “We’ve been playing guys for a lot of minutes already and if Kevin is not playing, are we going to drive the remaining guys for too many minutes? So I distracted myself by the whole picture.”

The Nets have road games on Saturday (Philadelphia) and Tuesday (Detroit) and return home on Wednesday (Indiana). The Nets begin a West Coast trip next Saturday against Golden State.

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