The Brooklyn Nets have officially ruled out Kevin Durant for Saturday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers due to contact tracing, per Malika Andrews of ESPN.

The announcement comes after Friday's strange debacle in which the league initially held Durant out of the Nets game against the Toronto Raptors due to possible exposure to COVID-19. While health and safety officials allowed the forward to enter the game midway through the first quarter, the league reversed its decision once again by pulling the forward from the contest for good in the third quarter.

Amidst the confusion surrounding the NBA's reasoning for pulling Kevin Durant in and out of the Nets lineup, the league office released a statement in which they attempted to clarify their protocols.

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“Durant was initially held out of the game while that result was being reviewed,” the statement read. “Under the league's health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until a close contact has a confirmed positive test.”

While the statement explains why the league pulled Durant for good in the second half, it sheds little light on why officials held the Nets star out after an inconclusive test by the “contact,” when protocols only require such an action after a positive result. Not only did Durant take to social media to criticize the league's handling of the incident, but teammate James Harden was vocally critical of the NBA during his postgame comments.

The debacle also comes in the aftermath of the NBA announcing that the All-Star game would go forward, despite heavy reluctance from players across the association. For a league that has been aggressive in its messaging surrounding the pandemic, the mixed signals it has sent as of late have not been helping.