Philadelphia 76ers teammates Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were excluded from Sunday’s NBA All-Star game after being flagged for coronavirus contact tracking, leading some players to question again why the display was being played during a pandemic.
The 76ers and the NBA learned of the situation with Embiid and Simmons – which resulted from haircuts – on Saturday night and made the decision on Sunday morning that neither of them could play about nine hours before the scheduled departure.
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The game in Atlanta is taking place as scheduled.
“It’s just an unhappy time in the world when our health and safety should be ahead of the game,” said All-Star Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday in Atlanta. “I personally don’t agree with the game, but, you know, it is what it is.”
A person with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that Embiid and Simmons had negative results for COVID-19 and that their barber was positive. The two players saw the barber a day or two before flying to Atlanta, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity on Sunday, because those details have not been made public.
“It’s kind of confusing,” said Washington All-Star Bradley Beal. “It is unfortunate.”
Embiid would start the Team Durant, which will be coached by Doc Rivers, from Philadelphia. Simmons would have been a reserve for Team LeBron. New Orleans’ Zion Williamson will start in place of Embiid, the NBA said, and both teams will have 11 players on the active roster instead of the usual 12.
Embiid and Simmons are in Atlanta, although it was not immediately clear whether they would have to stay there and be quarantined or if they could leave and resume the All-Star break elsewhere.
“I would say it’s not great,” Rivers said Sunday morning, when asked about the situation before the final determination on the status of Embiid and Simmons.
It doesn’t look great in any way.
Several players – including All-Star captain LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers – have openly wondered in recent weeks why the game was being played. And Sunday’s news provided a reminder of why those concerns seemed valid.
“Obviously, I love our league and I love playing basketball at the highest level and doing what I love to do,” said James. “But I think, given the circumstances and what we’re still going through with the pandemic and everything with the season, I thought we could have looked at it a little differently … And I hate the fact that Joel and Ben won’t be able to play today. “
The league and the National Basketball Players Association went ahead with plans for the game for several reasons, including because it will honor historically black institutions and generate at least $ 3 million for scholarship funds that help black students.
“Throughout this pandemic, we seek to find the right balance between the health and safety of our players, the community that is involved in the production of NBA basketball and, of course, our fans, along with economic interests and also our community” . NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Saturday in his annual All-Star speech. “Add to that the issues of social justice … Once again, we feel that we have struck the appropriate balance here, looking after the interests of everyone involved.”
The collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players also stipulates that the game be played, and Silver has said several times in the past few weeks that millions of fans around the world want to see the game happen.
“I don’t want to say that we had no choice, but it is in our CBA and our CBA says there must be an All-Star Game every year,” said Beal. “There is a lot of language there that can get ugly if we don’t necessarily go down and proceed with the All-Star Game. There are still guys reserved about it, I’m sure. I’m still reserved about it.”
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There have been NBA 31 games postponed this season because at least one team would not have enough players to play due to virus-related reasons, including positive tests and contact tracking situations.
In previous cases where contact tracking detected an issue that was eventually confirmed as a positive case, players typically needed to sit down for a week. This means that Embiid and Simmons can potentially lose at least two games; Philadelphia, which has the best record at the Eastern Conference, opens its second-half schedule with games in Chicago on Thursday and Washington on Friday.
No other All-Stars or staff members of the 76ers in Atlanta were affected, because “they were not exposed to the individual in Philadelphia,” said the NBA.