Suns star Devin Booker has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols and will miss Wednesday’s game vs. Portland, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
Rosters around the NBA were thrown into disarray in December and January as most teams experienced outbreaks of COVID-19. However, Booker is the first player to be placed in the league’s health and safety protocols since the All-Star break. Wizards center Daniel Gafford, the last player in the protocols, was cleared on February 13.
Hopefully, if Booker contracted the virus, it’s an isolated incident rather than the beginning of another league-wide increase in cases. The NBA hasn’t mandated daily coronavirus tests for the last few weeks, requiring players to get tested only if they’re unvaccinated, they’re a close contact of someone who tests positive, or they experience COVID-19 symptoms.
Assuming Booker did test positive, he’ll be out for at least five days or until he returns two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart. A best-case scenario for Phoenix would be that Booker registered a false positive and is able to exit the protocols within the next day or two.
The Suns are already missing Chris Paul (thumb), so they’ll be without both of their backcourt stars when they face the Trail Blazers tonight. However, it appears Cameron Payne (wrist) should be available to play for the first time since January 22 — he’s listed as probable on Phoenix’s injury report.
Oh no…what ever will they do against the Trailblazers…oh noo…
Better get it over with. meanwhile let the team cosolidate without Paul & Booker and be fully ready for the playoff run. Good timing.
are we still doing this lol maybe in the future theyll use it as an excuse to rest old players to avoid the ire of the fans and the league
I don’t know why we wouldn’t still be “doing this”. Sure transmission and death have been falling but nearly 2000 people a day still die from COVID.
Dying from Covid and dying with Covid should be separate statistics. When you already have one foot out the door it doesn’t always take much to finish the job.
If you have diabetes and get hit by a truck you still die from getting hit with a truck. If Covid exacerbates your current symptoms and you die as a result Covid still plays a major role.
Not to mention, there wouldn’t be such a spike in death rate if COVID-19 were as mild as some seem to think
Co-morbidity makes no relevant difference, if the other stuff was controlled before the covid battle.
How does one define “one foot out”?
I do agree better stats should be kept in general. But is greater granularity always desired?
Amazingly, people do not always want more reasons.. Some people prefer there to be only one reason for something, and a simple one at that.
There is also the large presence of the “leave the dead alone” crowd.
4 reasons why not.
The problem of subjectivity increases with detail required: #5.
As much fun as it was seeing teams trot out lineups made up of G-League players and some semi-retired veterans who had been out of the league since 2019 back in December, I highly doubt the league would want to see anything like this again as the playoffs are getting closer. Let’s just hope this (and Nash’s) is just an isolated incident, but if it’s not, then let’s hope the league is coming up with something new to handle it. Signing emergency G-League players and washed-up vets will not do again come playoff time.
“New to handle it”?— Besides a cure, natural or not?
Total forgiveness? You know the union will have to agree. Players get paid something regardless.
Same old arguments. Darn disease.