The NBA world’s collective eyes were on the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night, and not for a particularly flattering reason. Kevin Durant was unable to start the team’s 123-117 loss to the Toronto Raptors, and while he was eventually able to take the floor, during the game, Durant was told that he had to stop playing due to questions surrounding contact tracing, which were later revealed to be a member of his circle testing positive for COVID-19. The former NBA MVP was visibly upset about the incident, and after the game, he took to Twitter to vent some frustration about the entire situation.
Perhaps some of that frustration was explained by a report from ESPN that came out in the aftermath of the news. According to Malika Andrews and Adrian Wojnarowski, Durant will not only not be able to join the team in Philadelphia for its upcoming tilt against the 76ers, but he could end up missing a handful of games due to contact tracing for the second time this season.
After a confounding night surrounding the status of Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant at the Barclays Center — which included him getting pulled out of the lineup in the pregame and third quarter for contact-tracing protocols — Durant won’t travel to Philadelphia for Saturday’s game and could be lost for multiple games for the second time in a month, sources tell ESPN.
It is unclear when Durant could be able to get the green light from the league so he can return to action. The Nets standout has already dealt with the novel coronavirus, as he was among the first NBA players to receive positive tests that were made public back in March of 2020. Brooklyn has four games in the next week: Trips to Philly and Detroit on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively, before playing host to Indiana on Wednesday and a trip to take on the Warriors next Saturday.