On Friday, the NBA’s growing concerns related to coronavirus struck the Dallas Mavericks, when one player tested positive for Covid-19 and two others had to be quarantined for contract tracing.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Mavericks will be missing Josh Richardson, Jalen Brinson and Dorian Finney-Smith for a minimum of seven days due to Covid-19 protocols. The team learnt that a player had tested positive before leaving Denver after defeating them on Thursday night. It is still not clear which one of these players had tested positive, but all three will be missing games.
NBA health and safety protocols state that the player who tested positive for Covid-19 has “two routes to return to work: go 10 days or more after the first positive test or onset of symptoms, or test negative twice at least 24 hours apart via PCR testing.”
All three quarantining players remained in Denver while the rest of the team, including All-Star guard Luka Doncic, flew back to Dallas. The only Mavs player who publicly reported to have contracted the coronavirus is Trey Burke. He had the virus before signing with the team for the Orlando bubble. In the coming seven days, the Mavericks play the Magic, Pelicans, Hornets and Bucks.
Before Dallas’s Thursday night overtime win against Denver, coach Rick Carlisle talked about the difficulties of maintaining, in effect, a travelling bubble while following the 134-page health and safety guidelines that were to all 30 teams before the start of training camp. He also added that the Mavericks have the best medical/training staff in the league, led by director of player health and performance Casey Smith, head athletic trainer Dionne Calhoun and assistant athletic club Heather Mau.
