Kevin Durant in quarantine after close contact tests positive for COVID-19, will join Nets on Friday

Kevin Durant had COVID-19 last March, but he has been one of the players most affected by the league’s preventative measures against him so far this season. The Brooklyn Nets star missed three games in January due to league health and safety protocols and was ruled out of Saturday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Brooklyn coach Steve Nash said Durant can join the team on Friday, a day before Brooklyn faced its former team, the Golden State Warriors, on February 13.

The reason for the quarantine which lasts almost a week is because Durant goes to the practice center and returns with a team employee three times on Friday, none of them wearing a mask. The team employee has reportedly tested positive for the virus.

It comes after Durant went through one of the weirdest sagas of the season on Friday night in the team’s game against the Toronto Raptors. He underwent contact tracing that prevented him from starting, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews. This is where things get complicated. Durant was then cleared into the game midway through the first quarter, marking his first appearance off the bench as an NBA player.

It was reported that he did not need to have any further testing, but someone he came into contact with did. Before the game, Durant went to the training center and returned with a team employee three times on Friday, neither of them wearing a mask. The team employee tested positive for the virus, which is why Durant was excluded from the start of the match. However, he was later shut out, played a good chunk of the game, and then was taken out of the game in the third quarter due to league health and safety protocols as this person tested positive. The NBA issued the following statement explaining the situation.

Kevin Durant has tested negative three times in the past 24 hours, including two negative PCR tests today. However, someone he interacted with this afternoon subsequently had an inconclusive test return. shortly before the game Durant was initially excluded from the game while this The result was under review In accordance with league health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until ‘close contact to have a confirmed positive test. During the match, a positive result was returned for the person Durant interacted with that afternoon. Once that test was confirmed positive, as a precaution, Durant has been removed from the game, and contact tracing is underway to determine if he was in fact close contact of the positive individual. “

Durant criticized the statement and the league’s handling of the bigger picture on Twitter.

NBA health and safety protocols make no distinction between players who have already had COVID-19 and those who do not. If the rules are broken, players are kept away as a precaution against the spread of the virus. The Nets, as a team, have not had any games postponed due to the coronavirus, and none of their top players have missed significant court time because of the virus this season.

Durant’s absence forced the Nets to start Bruce Brown in his place against a suddenly reborn Raptors team that have won seven of their last 11 games after starting the season at the bottom of the standings. The Nets came in on Friday tied with the Milwaukee Bucks two games away from the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets have had a turbulent start to the season thanks to the unexpected absence of Kyrie Irving and the lost depth in the trade from James Harden, so every regular-season game counts. Now that uncertainty surrounding Durant only complicates their push for the home advantage.