Frustrated. Overwhelming. Downright bizarre.
Those are the words the Nets used to describe what happened Friday night, when Kevin Durant was pulled from their starting line-up just before the tip and then allowed to play to be pulled off the field for COVID-19 contact tracking.
‘I was mostly frustrated [since] we follow the protocols, we get tested every day so i don’t understand the whole thing where he couldn’t play and then he came on a track and then they took him back. There is just a lot going on. Too much is happening. It’s quite overwhelming, ”said James Harden, who raised the question of whether the game should have been named at all.
“If that were the case, the game should have been postponed. When it comes to tracking down contacts, he was around all of us so I don’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to play and then he was able to play and then was taken off the field again. If it did, we should just postpone the game. That’s how I feel.”
Durant had tested negative three times in the past 24 hours, including twice on Friday. Nevertheless, he was still taken off the track and is now not expected to make the trip to Philadelphia for Saturday’s massive game against the 76ers. It left the Nets and confused.
‘Yes, that’s what I mean, it’s perfect: confusing, frustrating. I mean it’s bizarre, right? For him not to start, and then be able to come in, play, and then be taken out again. It just doesn’t make any sense, ”said Joe Harris, stunned at what this meant for the rest of the team in terms of contact tracking.
“Your guess is as good as mine. I would have said, ‘Hey, if he’s reaching out, I mean, what the hell is it? He’s on court with all of us.”
Harden had the same questions about locating contacts and wondered: If security was so important, why play?
“I said what was going on and they only said contact tracking,” Harden said. ‘I think to myself, if it’s contact tracking, we’re all in the locker room together: that means there’s no game if he can’t play. So that was my thinking process, and once we got into the game I kind of forgot about it. Then Kevin comes into play and I’m like, there must have been confusion or something went wrong. “
What the Nets – and others like Lakers star LeBron James and De’Aaron Fox of the Kings – find confused is that the NBA is planning the All-Star Game for March 7. This one is held in Atlanta and the COVID-19 positivity rate for Fulton County is over 11 percent.
“I feel bad for the guys who are actually All-Stars,” said Harris. “Yes, it is just a lot of things that it really doesn’t make much sense. But I’m not the one who makes the decisions. I just work here. “
It could affect Harden, who falls into James and Fox’s camp for not looking forward to it.
“I haven’t said anything in public, but I feel the same way as some of the players who are like there is so much going on that we are trying to calm a virus and organize an event,” Harden said.
“I know the reasoning, but I have a feeling that – especially with a concise schedule forced on players – it is already exhausting to play many games in a week. I feel like it was a week to relax, to be with our families to take things one step further than basketball. So like I said, we’re just in it. “