Frustrated. Overwhelming. Completely bizarre.
These are the words the Nets used to describe what happened on Friday night, when Kevin Durant was removed from his starting lineup just before the complaint, and was allowed to play only to be pulled off the court to track down the contact. COVID-19.
“I was frustrated, especially [since] we follow the protocols, we do the test every day, so I don’t understand the whole thing that he couldn’t play and then he came onto the court, and then he was taken back. There is a lot going on. There is a lot going on. It’s kind of overwhelming, ”said James Harden, who raised the question of whether the game should have ended.
“If that were the case, the game should have been postponed. If we’re talking about contact tracking, he was close to all of us, so I don’t understand why he was not allowed to play and then he was able to play and was taken off the court. If that were the case, we should simply postpone the game. It’s how I feel. “
Durant had tested negative three times in the past 24 hours, including twice on Friday. However, he was still removed from the court and now he is not expected to make a trip to Philadelphia for Saturday’s big fight against the 76ers. This left the Nets out of manpower and confused.
“Yes, I mean, it is necessary: confused, frustrating. I mean, it’s bizarre, right? So he doesn’t start, and then he can come in, play and be taken out again. It just doesn’t really make sense, ”said Joe Harris, who was baffled by what it meant for the rest of the team in terms of contact tracking.
“His guess is as good as mine. I would have said, ‘Hey, if he’s sitting for contact tracking, I mean, what the hell? He’s with us all on the court.”
Harden had the same contact tracking questions, asking himself: if security was such a concern, why play?
“I said what was going on and they just said contact tracking,” said Harden. “I’m thinking to myself, well, if it’s contact tracking, then we’re all in the locker room together: that means there’s no game if he’s not able to play. So that was my thinking process, and as soon as we started the game, I kind of forgot. So Kevin comes into the game and I’m like, there must have been confusion or something wrong. “
What the Nets – and others like the star of Lakers LeBron James and De’Aaron Fox of the Kings – find messy is the fact that the NBA schedules the All-Star Game for March 7. It will be held in Atlanta, and at COVID-19 the positivity rate for Fulton County is over 11%.
“I feel bad for the guys who are really All-Stars,” said Harris. “Yes, it’s just a lot of things that don’t really make a lot of sense. But I’m not the one who makes the decisions. I just work here. “
It can affect Harden, who falls into the field of James and Fox because he is not looking forward to it.
“I didn’t say anything publicly, but I feel the same way as some of the players who think there is so much going on while we are trying to calm a virus and are organizing an event,” Harden said.
“I know what the reasoning is, but I feel that – especially with a condensed schedule that has been imposed on players – it is already tiring to play so many games in one week. I think it was a week for us to relax, to be with our families to take a step away from basketball. So, like I said, we’re just that. “