The Sixers are quarantined in New York after a positive COVID test for one of their players, a team official confirmed to PhillyVoice on Thursday evening. Seth Curry, who was ruled out from Thursday’s game after being listed as questionable with an ankle injury, was the player who tested positive. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report Curry’s positive test.
According to sources speaking with PhillyVoice on the condition of anonymity, Curry was tested on Thursday morning as dictated by competition protocols, but the Sixers were under no impression that he was COVID-19 positive leading up to the match. As a result, Curry sat in street clothes on the Philadelphia bank for the first quarter, leaving the court only after the test results were reported to the team. When the results were out, Curry isolated himself from the team.
In TNT’s first quarter footage, reviewed by PhillyVoice, Curry appears to be wearing a mask during his time on the couch. However, he was in close contact with several members of the Sixers’ roster, including Dwight Howard and Joel Embiid, the latter of whom sat next to Curry and had a conversation with him late in the first quarter.
Excuse the blurry screenshots here, but look back at the first quarter footage tonight.
Seth Curry was the only front row player to start the game. As time went on, other guys (including Embiid unmasked right next to him) were much closer pic.twitter.com/AZqYWUOpYs
– Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) January 8, 2021
The Sixers will all retest in the morning as they go through contact tracing protocols before leaving New York, sources say, then work with the NBA to find next steps from here. It is not immediately clear how the team and the competition will proceed.
With Curry’s positive test coming as a surprise, his participation in the previous game against the Washington Wizards is a potential cause for concern over the spread of the virus. Philadelphia will be back in a home game with the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, and no information is available at this time as to whether the league might be forced to change its schedule or postpone Sixers games in the near future. On the other side of the coin, Joe Vardon reports the Brooklyn Nets are still flying to Memphis on Friday night for the second half of their back-to-back.
One Sixers player has already made it clear that he will take his own steps to protect his loved ones. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported late Thursday night that Joel Embiid plans to quarantine himself for his family, including his three-month-old son, until he can be sure he doesn’t have the virus.
This story unfolds …
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