Following a perplexing nighttime surrounding the standing of Brooklyn Nets celebrity Kevin Durant in the Barclays Center — which contained him getting hauled from the lineup at the pregame and next quarter to get contact-tracing protocols — Durant will not traveling to Philadelphia for Saturday’s match and may be lost for numerous matches for the second time in a month, sources tell ESPN.
That prompted a dramatic third-quarter scene: a Nets official telling Durant he needed to leave the seat for isolation, inducing a flustered franchise celebrity to trudge to the bowels of Barclays, in which, presumablyhe tweeted,”Free Me,” in the last moments of the match.
The Nets educated the league division of this person’s inconclusive test on Friday afternoon, and finally were instructed to pull on Durant from pregame warmups. Nets general manager Sean Marks was on the telephone with all the group office and delivered word to the court.
Seconds after, Steve Nash and his training team discovered that Durant wouldn’t be available to begin the game.
Durant left the ground prior to the match, just to have the NBA clear him to come back to the seat shortly after the onset of the first quarter.
“Durant was originally held from the match while that outcome has been being examined,” the team announcement said. “Beneath the league’s wellbeing and security protocols, we don’t call for a participant to be quarantined before a close touch has a verified positive test”
Before Durant left the courtroom for the last time during the third quarter, he had been sitting on the seat while officials examined a drama where he’d picked up his fifth foul of this day.
Since the timeout came to a finish, a team official told Durant he would not have the ability to continue from the match. As he walked through the tube, Durant threw his water bottle.
“I really don’t know the entire matter where he could not play, he then stumbled upon the court, they then shot back him,” Nets guard James Harden explained. “There is only a lot going on. There is too much happening. It is sort of overwhelming. We are in the middle of a challenging match, and such matches will add up, particularly if we are talking about playoff seeding… to grab a rhythm. It is overwhelming. It is frustrating.”
Especially with him having it and we have analyzed each and every moment. He has been negative. Therefore, I really don’t know what the issue is. The game should have been postponed, and I really feel as though. He had been about all people. I really don’t know why he was not permitted to playwith, then permitted to playwith, then taken off the courtroom. If this was the situation, we should have postponed the match.”
Durant contracted the coronavirus in March and had those antibodies in early January when he had been missing for four matches due to contact tracing. Four months later, Durant might be missing to get an identical six-day stretch,” sources said.
Following Friday’s match, Nash explained he fought occasionally, to compartmentalize Durant’s lack during the match.
“I probably have a bit distracted considering exactly what it signifies long-term for our staff,” Nash explained. “We have been enjoying men lots of moments and when Kevin isn’t enjoying, are we awaiting na conduct the rest of the men too many moments? So perhaps I got a bit distracted by the large picture.”
The Nets begin a West Coast trip next Saturday from Golden State.