After the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on Friday, LeBron James had the opportunity to articulate his feelings about being placed in the NBA's health and safety protocols for two days following what turned about to be a false positive COVID-19 test.
LeBron — as his cagey tweet from Wednesday suggested — was not happy about the ordeal.
“Besides last night being able to go to my boys’ game … pretty just confused and frustrated, angry,” he said about his strange week. “Just not being able to do anything. I haven’t been able to do anything besides sit in the house since I got back Monday evening. All the way till like, I got cleared at like, four o’clock yesterday afternoon. And this morning was the first time I got an opportunity to actually touch a basketball since Sunday’s game vs. Detroit.”
LeBron then specified why he was angry about the process, which forced him to miss the Lakers win over the Sacramento Kings.
“The fact that I tested negative first and my second test came back positive. And usually, when you have a positive test, they will test you right away, to make sure. There was not a follow-up test after my positive test. It was straight isolation, and you’ve been put into protocol. And that’s the part that kind of angered me. I had to figure out a way to get home from Sacramento, by myself. They wouldn’t allow anyone to travel with me, no security, no anything … I had to put my kids in isolation for the time being … It was just a big-time inconvenience. That was the anger part.”
(Later in his press conference, he praised the NBA's protocols and clarified that he was simply upset with how the process went down in Sacramento.)
The Lakers star said he was confident his positive was false all along.
“I knew I was gonna get cleared, because I never, ever felt sick at all. And I know you can be asymptomatic. But, if what I had was a positive COVID test, then what are we doing? Like what are talking about? I just thought it was handled very poorly.”
LeBron was then asked about reports that the league will soon require daily testing for players who don't receive a booster shot, and whether this incident has caused him to re-think the protocols. He declined to address the booster shot topic.
“No. We’ve all been doing exactly what the protocols told us to do and taking the tests and things of that nature. It’s unfortunate when you get a false positive and get put into isolation. That’s the unfortunate part, but we’ll see what happens.”
In other news, James scored 23 points on 9-of-23 shooting and posted 11 rebounds and six assists in 36 minutes. He said he was “pretty shitty” on defense in the fourth quarter.
Follow Us
Subscribe
