Just ahead of Friday night’s tipoff with the Toronto Raptors, the Nets announced that forward Kevin Durant would not be available to start due to health and safety protocols.
“Kevin Durant will not be available to start tonight’s game due to health and safety protocols. Further updates will be provided when available,” the Nets said via a team statement.
Later in the first quarter, though, Durant was officially cleared by the team to play. With four minutes and 13 seconds left in the quarter, Durant came into the game off the bench.
Incredibly, it marked the first time in Durant's stellar career that he's ever come off the bench, following a string of 866 straight starts.
But the story took another turn midway through the third quarter, when the Nets announced that Durant would not be returning to the floor, again citing health and safety protocols. Durant played 19 minutes off the bench, scoring 10 points to go with six rebounds and five assists.
Durant didn't seem too happy about the move, tweeting "Free me" as the game approached the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
The NBA later released a statement explaining the timeline of events:
"Kevin Durant has tested negative three times in the last 24 hours, including two negative PCR tests today. However, someone he interacted with this afternoon subsequently had an inconclusive test result return shortly before the game. Durant was initially held out of the game while that result was being reviewed. Under the league's health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until a close contact has a confirmed positive test. During the game, a positive result was returned for the person Durant interacted with this afternoon. Once that test was confirmed positive, out of an abundance of caution, Durant was removed from the game, and contact tracing is underway to determine if he was in fact a close contact of the positive individual."
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Durant had been registering antibodies from his offseason bout with COVID-19 when he was forced to sit out for four games due to contact tracing a month ago.
Wojnarowski also reports that the rest of the Nets have been cleared to travel for Saturday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers, but Durant will not make the trip.
Bruce Brown was moved into the starting lineup in Durant's absence, alongside Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Joe Harris, and DeAndre Jordan.
