4:19pm: Asked prior to Thursday night’s game about House’s status, Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni confirmed that he expects to be without the forward (Twitter link via Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle). D’Antoni is unsure whether House will be available later in the series.
“The investigation is ongoing,” he said. “They’ll come out with their ruling and we’ll go from there.”
12:46pm: After word broke on Wednesday night that the NBA is investigating a potential violation of campus protocols by Rockets forward Danuel House, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported on Thursday morning that the probe is related to House allegedly allowing a female COVID-19 testing official into his hotel room. Now, Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic have provided more details on the investigation.
According to Charania and Amick, a female staffer – who is not believed to be a league employee – entered the Rockets’ team hotel on Monday night and left in the early hours of Tuesday morning. When the woman was questioned by league security, she claimed to have contact with Tyson Chandler and another player (not House), sources tell The Athletic.
The entire Rockets’ team entered a quarantine period on Tuesday due to possible coronavirus exposure, but the league’s investigation soon focused on Chandler and House, according to Charania and Amick. Those two players weren’t permitted to play in Game 3 vs. the Lakers on Tuesday night.
Although the woman didn’t implicate House and he has “vehemently denied” engaging in any improper conduct, the NBA says it has circumstantial evidence implicating House, per The Athletic’s report. The league’s investigation cleared Chandler on Wednesday and shifted its focus toward House, who has been in quarantine while the probe continues.
The Rockets and the NBPA have been supporting House, but Charania and Amick suggest that the team and the union are “virtually powerless” in the process, since the NBA is running the show on medical and protocol issues. Sources tell The Athletic that there has been some frustration about the lack of communication between the league’s investigative team and the Rockets.
Today’s latest injury report from the NBA continued to list House as out for Game 4 on Thursday night, so unless the league’s investigation clears him within the next few hours, it sounds as if he’ll likely miss a second consecutive game.
Lol what a Sham. Anything to help LBJ to another finals.
Yes because Danuel House is the difference between LeBron winning and not. If the man violated the rules, he violated the rules. No conspiracy.
If it were a ploy to help the Lakers, it would definitely be other players involved.
True, House was instrumental in the Rockets’ win in Game 2.
I guess these guys never watched “Raging Bull”.
You couldn’t wait 4 days. All the Rockets will be gone by then.
Great comment!!
If it were a plot, the clear option would be to implicate Harden/Westbrook, not the 7th member off the bench! Just like age, hormones are undefeated; the man has needs. Lol!
He was actually a starter for them most of the season. House is probably more important to the Rockets than someone like Kuzma or Rondo is to LA.
Avery Bradley is more important than House
OMG dude, nice one
Not sure I’d agree with that after seeing what Rondo did to your Rockets
The chick came to feed Danuel House from midnight to early morning
House has a wife and a kid
How it works
As far as I know, no other player in the NBA bubble or NHL bubble have done this. Don’t know how you let side action risk your chance T a title.
Argument is
Chick stayed in House room after midnight for a few hours? Yes or no？
Did chick and House perform Travel Step Back in hotel room？
The testing official girl? House probably thought this was the one girl he could safely do (health wise). But he forgot that Silver has eyes and ears everywhere.
House is much more important to the Rockets success than people think. In the 52 games he started during the regular season they went 36-16, but in the other 20 games during the season Houston was just 8-12.
House is good, but some teams will avoid having a local guy on their roster because they will be less likely to break old habits that an employer might redefine as vices.
I’m not sure what is so horrible about this though. Well so far as is public.
House is married too. What a bonehead.