11:51am: Irving has now been placed in the league’s health and safety protocols, making him the ninth Nets player on the list.
According to Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News (Twitter link), the typical testing process for Irving to rejoin the team wouldn’t have required him to be entered into the protocols, so he registered either a positive or inconclusive test.
Irving needs five consecutive days of negative tests to join the team for practices, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
10:38 am: Nets superstar Kevin Durant has entered the league’s health and safety protocols, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Durant has tested positive on multiple occasions over the past two years. He had his own bout with the virus shortly after the pandemic struck. He missed three games last January after testing positive and missed three more in February after being deemed a close contact.
Durant has been playing at an MVP level, carrying the team through its current COVID crisis. He’s averaging 33.1 PPG, 9.0 RPG and 6.7 APG this month for a team currently on a four-game winning streak.
Brooklyn, which has the Eastern Conference’s top record, also has seven other players on the protocols list. That group includes LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre’ Bembry, Bruce Brown, Jevon Carter, James Harden, James Johnson and Paul Millsap.
The Nets have been scrambling to have enough players in uniform. They announced on Saturday that James Ennis and Shaquille Harrison have been signed to 10-day contracts using the hardship exemption. Langston Galloway was previous signed under the same conditions.
They also announced on Friday that Kyrie Irving would return to the team and play in road games.
Oh my gosh.
Instant karma for the Nets owner for putting profits over health by bending his knee for Clownrie, he totally deserves this.
Hahahahahahaha!
Definition of poetic justice.
@Marty
you chastise the team owner but do you reallllly think he made this decision without the “ok” or more likely, the request of the players and coaches on the team?
100% this was all about players and coaches realizing they were playing KD way too much and would have been worn down for the playoffs, I don’t see any profiteering motive.
NBA should just shut it down for few days, so they can all have xmas and holiday games.
Really? Yer biggest concern is having a game to watch on Christmas?
yes.
Any chance teams are putting people in protocols as close contacts just to see if they can get an extra day off?
Are any of the other Nets ready to come out of the protocols? A few have been in them for about a week.
Harden and aldridge went in 3 days ago. Looking like Xmas game is gonna be without harden and kd
In retrospect, it looks like the Bulls may get a slight advantage by having games postponed rather than having to play them with 4th stringers. Although their schedule does get compressed slightly more.
I was thinking the same thing. They ‘got lucky’ by being a little ahead of the curve so to speak. Their guys will be coming out of protocols against G League competition.
bahahahahahahhahahahaha….. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA…… LOL
Bravo!
Can’t make this stuff up, folks!!
not even one day I said 3 and hes in protocols