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 night. Seth Curry, who was dropped for Thursday’s game after being listed as questionable because of 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 who spoke to PhillyVoice on the condition of anonymity, Curry was tested on Thursday morning as required by league protocols, but the Sixers did not have the impression that he was COVID-19 positive in the lead of the game. As a result, Curry sat in normal clothes on the Philadelphia bench during the first quarter, only leaving the court after the test results were reported to the team. As soon as the results were known, Curry isolated himself from the team.
In the filming of the first quarter TNT analyzed by PhillyVoice, Curry appears to wear a mask during his time at the bank. He was, however, in close contact with several members of the Sixers’ list, including Dwight Howard and Joel Embiid, the last of whom sat next to Curry and had a conversation with him at the end of the first quarter.
Sorry for the blurry images here, but looking back through the footage from the first quarter tonight.
Seth Curry was the only player in the front row to start the game. As time went on, other guys (including Embiid next to him without a mask) were much closer pic.twitter.com/AZqYWUOpYs
– Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) January 8, 2021
The Sixers will test again in the morning, while working with contact tracking protocols before leaving New York, the sources say, and then will work with the NBA to find out the next steps from here. It is not clear how the team and the league will progress.
With Curry’s positive test being a surprise, his choice for the previous game against the Washington Wizards is a potential cause of concern for the spread of the virus. Philadelphia is back on Saturday in a home game with the Denver Nuggets, and no information is available at this time if the league can be forced to change the schedule or postpone any Sixers game in the immediate future. On the other side of the coin, Joe Vardon reports Brooklyn Nets is still flying to Memphis for the second half of the consecutive game on Friday night.
The One Sixers player has already made it clear that he will follow his own steps to protect his loved ones. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported on Thursday night that Joel Embiid plans to quarantine his family, including his three-month-old son, until he is sure he does not have the virus.
This story is developing …
Follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleNeubeck
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Subscribe to Kyle’s Sixers’ podcast “The New Slant” at Apple, Googleand Spotify