Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets will not be traveling, he may be involved in various games due to contact tracking protocols

After a night of confusion around the state of Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant at the Barclays Center (which included him to get out of training during the previous game and the third quarter for follow-up protocols Durant will not travel to Philadelphia for Saturday and could miss several games for the second time in a month, sources told ESPN.

Durant had contacted an associate on Friday who tested positive for coronavirus on Friday night, just hours after returning an inconclusive test shortly before the Nets’ 123-117 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

This inspired a more dramatic third-quarter scene: a Nets official who informed Durant that he had to leave the bench to isolate himself, causing a frustrated franchise star to enter the bowels of Barclays, where he allegedly went tweet: “Free me.” in the final minutes of the match.

The Nets informed the league office of the individual’s inconclusive test on Friday afternoon and were finally instructed to remove During the pre-match warm-ups. Nets CEO Sean Marks had been on the phone with the league office and had given news to the court.

Moments later, Steve Nash and his coaching staff discovered that Durant would not be available to start the game.

Durant left the field before the game, only to let the NBA make it clear to return to the bench shortly after the start of the first quarter.

“During the start he stayed out of the game while this result was reviewed,” the league statement said. “According to the league’s safety and health protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until close contact has a confirmed positive test.”

Before Durant left the court for the last time during the third quarter, he was sitting on the bench while officers reviewed a play in which he had picked up his fifth foul of the night. The foul was disallowed, but Durant never re-registered.

When the timeout ended, a team official told Durant that he would not be able to continue the match. Durant shook his head in apparent frustration. As he returned through the tunnel, Durant tossed his bottle of water.

Durant, who played 19 minutes in the game, continued to tweet on Friday night after the game, questioning the chronology and details of the league.

After NBA stars LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo ridiculed NBA and NBPA plans for an Atlanta All-Star game on March 7, a sense of superstar revolt over the weekend.

“I didn’t understand the whole thing where he couldn’t play, then he got on the court and then they got him back,” Nets guard James Harden said. “There are just a lot of things going on. There are too many things going on. It’s a little overwhelming. We’re in the middle of a tough game, and these games will add up, especially if we talk about the playoff standings … picking up a pace. It’s overwhelming. It’s frustrating. “

“[Durant] it feels the same way. Especially with him as he has it and we put ourselves to the test every day. It has been negative. So I don’t understand what the problem is. It seems to me that the game should have been postponed. If we talk about tracking contacts. It was all around us. So I don’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to play, then he was allowed to play and then he was taken off the field again. If so, we should have postponed the game. “

Durant contracted the coronavirus in March and still had these antibodies in early January, when he was lost for four games due to contact tracking. Four weeks later, Durant could be lost for a similar six-day stretch, sources said.

After Friday’s game, Nash said he sometimes struggled to compartmentalize Durant’s absence during the game.

“I probably got a little distracted thinking about what it means in the long run for our team,” Nash said. “We’ve been playing guys for a lot of minutes now, and if Kevin doesn’t play, will we make the others not have too many minutes left? So maybe I’m a little distracted by the big picture.”

The Nets have road games Saturday (Philadelphia) and Tuesday (Detroit) and return home Wednesday (Indiana). The Nets will begin a trip to the West Coast next Saturday against Golden State.