The saga in Brooklyn regarding Nets star Kevin Durant just keeps going and going. Now his Nets teammate James Harden chimed in with his thoughts regarding the situation during Friday night's game.
Harden on his pregame thoughts about Durant:
"They just said contract tracing and I’m thinking to myself, 'Well, if it’s contact tracing, then we’re all in the locker room together. That means there’s no game if he’s not going to be able to play.'"
— Brian Mahoney (@briancmahoney) February 6, 2021
Harden's concerns about the contact tracing are valid, and the fact they had to go out and play the game with no explanation other than that must have been tough. As the game went on Durant was able to return, and then after playing for 18 minutes he was ruled out again, in a situation Harden said was “frustrating.”
James Harden said that it was "frustrating" to have Durant off the court, then on, then off again. "I don't understand the whole thing where he couldn't play and then they took him off the court… it's overwhelming."
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) February 6, 2021
Whenever a team has to play without their best player it's always tough, even more so when it comes to health and safety protocols and contact tracing situation that was announced just mere minutes before tip-off.
The Nets ended up losing to the Raptors 123-117, and the status of Durant for Saturday night's game against the East-leading Philadelphia 76ers is in doubt as the rest of the team was cleared to travel.
It's a bizarre situation, and probably the most confusing COVID protocol instance the NBA has seen this season, and it certainly might make the league think twice about holding an All-Star game.
For Harden and his teammates, the thought of Durant potentially testing positive and being around everybody else must have been a tough pill to swallow as they had to go out and continue to play the game, let alone the fact that Durant returned and then was pulled again.
The NBA has a lot of questions and will face scrutiny for the way they handled this situation, and Harden and the Nets can't be please with the result.
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