De’Aaron Fox has entered NBA health and safety protocols, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Charania also says that the Kings expect several more players and staff members to enter protocols.
Kings guard De'Aaron Fox has entered health and safety protocols, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Sacramento is expected to have a handful of total players entering protocols along with several more staff members.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 16, 2021
Head Coach Alvin Gentry, Marvin Bagley, and Terence Davis all missed yesterday’s game as part of health and safety protocols, with Gentry reportedly testing positive for Covid but being mostly asymptomatic.
Fox was previously reported as having been positive for Covid at the end of last season. This current report does not say that he’s positive for Covid, as there are a number of reasons a player can end up in the protocols, including contact tracing.
Earlier today ESPN 1320’s James Ham provided good clarification on some of the nuances involved:
Because the Kings don't play today, they have until this afternoon to place players in the injury/health and safety portal. They are still waiting for more testing, but expect one or more additional players to enter health and safety protocols today.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) December 16, 2021
To add more nuance, unless the player gives permission for the team to announce a positive test, the team is not allowed to divulge that information. Vaccinated and unvaccinated players are treated differently, especially with contact tracing. This is a complex situation.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) December 16, 2021
We expect more names to be announced as the afternoon continues, and we will continue to provide updates as more is reported. In the meantime we hope that all the impacted players, coaches, and staffers a speedy recovery.
Update:
Alex Len and Louis King are now also in health and safety protocols, per reports.
Kings forward Louis King — who has been with franchise's G-League team — is also entering Covid protocols, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/RKjD2bJhRa
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 17, 2021
King was with Sacramento for Monday’s game in Toronto but was in Oklahoma City yesterday with the Stockton Kings.
NBA: I see nothing! Everything is fine!
https://mobile.twitter.com/i/timeline
I hope Fox doesn’t have a new case of it. I think some of his struggles this season could be related to his earlier illness, although he’s been looking great this month.
Just shut the league down for two weeks, test everyone after that, and whoever isn’t sick can play ball.
No. Shutting down the league allows to succeed the conspiratorial forces to keep the Kings down!
Think about it:
https://mobile.twitter.com/i/timeline
The Doug Christie punch that kept a franchise down for decades… I see it now.
Stupid mobile twitter. The conspiracy to keep the conspiracy silent thickens!
If the Christmas Day slate of games wasn’t in nine days, that’s probably exactly what they’d do.
I don’t think there’s any way they suspend play for a couple weeks something like half the teams get knocked down to 8 or fewer players.
You’re right about the xmas games, they won’t pass up that ad revenue unless someone dies, and probably not even then.
Yeah, they need to take a break before things get so bad that someone gets seriously ill or even dies. It also makes me wonder about folks who sit courtside or near the bench. There is a lot of heavy breathing and shared air near the court. There is sometimes even vomit.
Lol for this:
I’m not sure what this would accomplish (probably nothing). This new wave of the virus is going to last all winter. Shutting down the league for a couple of weeks won’t stop new infections because the players will still be running around in public since they would likely not be quarantined for that period. All it would accomplish is to delay even more games.
The best course of action is to do what the Kings are already doing, i.e., require masks for all attendees and proof of vaccination. This should be extended and enforced at all facilities league wide. I was at the Wizards game and saw that there were Kings personnel half heartedly enforcing the mask mandate. I would like to see them be more strict with the enforcement efforts. Also, a lot of attendees are cheating on the mandate by buying a beer and nursing it for the entire game to justify having their masks off. I’m not sure what can be done about that but it would be nice if they could figure out how to address that as well. It’s extremely disrespectful of those fans who are showing complete disregard for the fellow fans.
Being vaccinated doesn’t negate transmission. All teams need to require a negative test within 24 hours for attendees or shutdown or go back to playing with no fans.
As far as masks go, they don’t do much when there’s thousands of people in an enclosed sitting for hours at a time breathing one another’s air. You’re going to have transmission with or without masks.
The non-dome NFL stadiums can better get away with hosting fans as air circulation is critical to preventing spread.
Well, Gentry talks to the players every game without a mask…so I assume the team is shutting down.
So does every head coach !
Don’t think you can avoid it spreading in NBA when many of the cases are asymptomatic and players and banging and fighting on the court every night. One dude can infect a multitude of players.
Exactly, there’s no logic behind the NBA’s protocol. If they’re not daily testing then everything else is pointless.
Len also out now. Guess this is why the kings have so many centers on the roster. We still got Thompson, Jones, and queta able to play the five.
Davion starts at PG!
that’s the better news coming out of Fox’s sad news.
I hope the NBA starts to evolve its COVID protocol to reflect the reality of a virus that is not going away.
BREAKING: NBA folds to prevent spread of COVID-19.
I have to agree here – anyone who is young, healthy and vaccinated will be fine. For people in that category, which includes literally almost every NBA player, it’s fine. We’ve dealt with influenza outbreaks of varying degrees in society without random freakouts, we can deal with this now that almost everyone in the league is vaccinated.
Go ahead and treat the unvaccinated players like lepers if that is what it takes but asymptomatic positives amongst the vaccinated are really not interesting at all.
It will eventually go that way. People know it but are not willing to take that stand yet. I was at the game last night and close enough to touch the players on the floor. There was not a single person associated with the team acting concerned about COVID.
Unfortunately that is not true. All new infections asymptomatic or not increase the probability of a new variant which may or may not be worse than the last and may or may not be resistant to the current vaccines. The goal is to reduce all infections in order to get control of this virus so we can get back to some form of normal.
My version of normal would be to get covid to the level of the flu. I.e. a yearly covid shot and a yearly death rate of 20,000 to 60,000. I don’t remember the exact numbers that I saw recently but the death rate for covid is far above that of the flu. Here’s an off the cuff estimate though. Roughly 1,100 people a day die from covid. That puts the yearly death rate at 400,000+. Like I said, far above that of the flu.
I am all for limiting the spread. Reality is that normal is different now. Hopefully one day soon COVID evolves into something like the flu, which will be a new variant, and the flu is a new variant all the time.
Young, vaccinated, professional athletes have very little risk. That is a reality. At some point the NBA will have to go forward and deal with that reality.
The odds of Bagley playing 6 games in a row are much worse to deal with as a team.
“Unfortunately that is not true. All new infections asymptomatic or not increase the probability of a new variant which may or may not be worse than the last and may or may not be resistant to the current vaccines. The goal is to reduce all infections in order to get control of this virus so we can get back to some form of normal.”
There is no getting control of this virus, you can’t control the movement of the billions of people around the world, let alone in this country. The virus will evolve and mutate, essentially forever. The death rate for Covid is decreasing which is a good sign and hopefully as you said it reaches the level of the flu sooner than later.
You can take some measure to control the movement of billion of people, like requiring a negative test AND vaccines for all air travel and large sporting events. The scrutiny of which negative tests and vaccine cards are checked to some of the places I’ve gone are a joke.
I’d be 100% fine with increasing the requirements AND also strictly enforcing them. If it makes life uncomfortable for the unvaccinated, so be it. It’s about the greater good.
None of the serious cases are in the NBA ! Much better chance of dying in a car wreck !
Almost all of whom are unvaccinated or immunocompromised. The Covid death rate amongst the vaccinated is *lower* than a normal flu season (though if people got flu vaccines at the same rate they got covid vaccines that would probably not be true).
At this point, virtually everyone getting seriously ill or dying from covid has specifically chosen that outcome. I am just beyond caring any more.
People have a choice in how to confront the danger. People make their decision and the world moves on.
Stop talking common sense, that’s not appreciated these days.
Just when we finally found our coach and were starting to roll….
The headline should read “Kings fans enter 15th season of health and safety protocols after continual exposure to the Kangz virus.”
For those Photoshop wizards out there. Can I get a number 19 Kings jersey, with the name of our new player Covid?
Is he as good as Cash Considerations?
I’m a bit busy right now.
The NBA may look to limit attendance by 25-50%. The Kings already started that weeks ago. Ahead of the game!!! Basketball3.0 is back!
Free Neemie?
Didn’t DeAaron Fox and Marvin Bagley already have COVID? Can you really get it twice? That’s more than just basketball news.
You can get covid twice – or, more likely, test positive twice. Nasal swabs may detect virus that is just kind of hanging out in your nasal cavity where your immune system can’t really get to it. Also, even if you do have acquired immunity from vaccination or prior infection (or both) you may not have enough active antibodies at first to completely clear the virus – your T & B memory will cells will (probably) eventually produce the effector T-cells to do the job but its not an instantaneous process and you’ll likely test positive in the meantime (and maybe be slightly ill and definitely contagious).
Badge Legend