Rick Carlisle missed the Dallas Mavericks' tilt against the New York Knicks on Friday after the Mavs coach returned a positive COVID-19 test result. As it turns out, further testing proved that it was a false positive, which prompted a statement from Carlisle himself.
According to the Mavs coach, he has now been cleared to travel with his team:
“By virtue of the fact that I am vaccinated and the two initial tests were negative, I was cleared to travel with the team but not cleared to go to the Garden,” Carlisle said, via Dwain Price of Mavs.com.
As he said in his statement above, Carlisle had already received a full set of vaccines against the virus, which is why he earlier said that the positive result was “unexpected.” True enough, further testing proved that it was indeed a false positive and that the 61-year-old Mavs coach did not contract COVID-19.
It did not come as a surprise, however, that Carlisle was not allowed to coach his team during Friday's 99-86 win over the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. The fact that he returned a positive test — regardless of how it later turned out to be a false positive — required him to self-isolate. The second set of tests likely came during/after the game, which at that point, was already too late for Carlisle to be with his team for the Knicks match.
The good news here is that Carlisle has been allowed to travel with his team to Washington. The Mavs take on the Wizards on Saturday in the second night of a back-to-back set, and they won't be leaving their coach behind. Had the second/third set of tests confirmed that Carlise was actually positive, then he would have been left with no choice but to quarantine in New York.
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