At a weird back-and-forth, Brooklyn Nets forwards Kevin Durant’s night culminated with him being pulled from Friday’s 123-117 reduction to the Toronto Raptors in the next quarter on account of the wellbeing and security protocols.
Durant was originally unavailable to start Friday’s game because somebody he interacted with before in the afternoon had an inconclusive test result for COVID-19, the league clarified in a statement. He came off the seat and checked into the game in the 4:13 mark of the first quarter.
“Durant was originally held from the match while that end result was being analyzed,” the announcement read. “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”
But during the match, a favorable result was returned to get that individual and Durant was taken out of the match in the next quarter”from an abundance of caution,” according to this league.
Contact tracing is underway to find out if Durant was actually a near contact of the person who tested positive.
James Harden called the situation”bothersome” following the match.
“…I do not know what the issue is,” he explained. “The game should have been postponed, and I really feel as though. If we are talking about contact tracing. [Durant] was 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.”
Since he sat on a seat in a rest, Durant was advised with a Nets staffer that he was being pulled in the game.
Durant tweeted”Free me” soon after being eliminated then chased the NBA in a different tweet following the match.
Coach Steve Nash explained the situation was hard to address while the match was happening, including that he had been worried about what the possible reduction of Durant would imply because of his team’s future.
“But that is how this season will be,” he explained. “We are going to be in and outside of COVID scenarios and moment pile ups and all of the issues we are likely to face and it is going to be the exact same for everybody. We must attempt and accommodate as a way to rebound from small setbacks in this way.”
It marked just the second time in the previous ten seasons Durant failed to reach double figures, breaking a series of 166 right games.
Seconds before he had been pulled in the match, Durant was whistled for his fifth foul, but the Nets won a struggle to overturn the telephone to the ground. It is the first time in Durant’s profession he completed a match with much more fouls than field objectives.
Durant, who’d COVID-19 last March, would be the second-leading scorer in the NBA, averaging 30.8 points per match. He missed three matches in early January as a result of health and security protocols.
