Sacramento Kings fans were treated to good news in Luke Walton’s media availability on Friday. The biggest news is that Harrison Barnes has finally cleared COVID-19 protocol and is flying to Orlando today. It will still take time for Barnes to clear protocols in Orlando and to resume practicing, but this is a huge first step for Barnes. As our Sanjesh Singh detailed, the Kings need Barnes if they hope to make the playoffs.
Harrison Barnes is Orlando bound.
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) July 24, 2020
Walton also shared that De’Aaron Fox was able to practice fully with the team. This is a huge relief that Fox’s ankle injury was minor and that he’s already recovered.
Kings PG De'Aaron Fox participated in full practice, Richaun Holmes was in non-contact practice 2-on-2.
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) July 24, 2020
Luke Walton said he'd like to see De'Aaron Fox in one, if not both of the remaining team scrimmages before the Kings restart the NBA season one week from today.
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) July 24, 2020
De’Aaron Fox also spoke to the media and it sounds like he feels great.
De’Aaron Fox says he was able to get up and down the court today and felt great. Says he will definitely be able to get into one of the next two scrimmages and the first game that counts.
— TKHBlake (@TKHblake) July 24, 2020
The Kings have endured what seemed like a terrible run of bad luck. Four players tested positive for COVID-19, De’Aaron Fox got hurt, Richaun Holmes broke quarantine, and Marvin Bagley got hurt. But perhaps the Kings got their bad luck out of the way early.
All four players who tested positive for COVID have now been cleared, De’Aaron Fox is back, and Holmes is out of his 10-day quarantine and is practicing. Marvin Bagley left the bubble and will miss the remainder of the season, but otherwise the Kings will be at full strength very soon.
Great news! Really looking forward to seeing this team at full strength.
If everyone’s at about the level they were playing at pre-suspension, then the Kings would have some of the best depth in the league. If Walton’s smart with it (emphasis on if), he could really take advantage of all the options to maximize the squad, especially if they’re playing fast.
Walton hasn’t shown he’s inclined to let this team step on the gas pedal, at least not while he’s still studying the film..
Be safe Kings. You won’t be able to hear us, but you’ve got an entire passionate, win-starved city in your corner!!
Do the Kings get one of those fan video chants that play on those giant screens?
I hope Sign Lady is included.
I think the screens showing fans is canned video but it would be really cool if they had a section with Sign Lady live showing her signs.
Way too much good news in one post, I must be in the wrong place.
Can’t wait to see Deaaron running around with that new haircut of his
If I recall my semester of HS Physics, he should be even faster with that low drag haircut!
FIFY
Can’t wait to see Deaaron running around with
that new haircut of hisno hairI wonder what Barnes’ beard will look like in Orlando
I googled “Disney Beard”. These are just a few….
There is something very wrong with you, Kosta.
I’m not sure whether to be afraid or admire you for it.
I didn’t do it, Kingsguru21! I only stumbled (or bumbled?) upon these! I was actually first thinking I’d find one of the dwarves or some other character that normally has a beard but then these popped up and I couldn’t not share!
Also, I hope you are feeling better since what you last described a week or two ago! 🙂
No, I meant the audacity to search Disney + beard. That can only lead to bad things!
I am doing better thanks. Just started back up at work today.
Definitely admire… from a safe distance of course.
Arriving at the hotel:
The refs should let him get away with blatant traveling now!
Barnes is joining ZZ Top
I spent ten years living in Austin, TX, and figured that this video was taken there until “BRACKLEY, UK” appeared. Approximately one-third of that city has beards that would make the rednecks on that duck hunting show green with envy.
I love them all
Coolio.
Also, random question: what’s up with Messy Ass? Why is she in twitter jail? Hopefully she is not in KH jail too! 😉
Translate please.
Okay.
TJ Macias is a fun twitter follow and I enjoyed her contributions on STR. She appears to have been suspended from twitter or something and I have yet to see her presence on KH. So, I inquired …
(Also, Messy Ass was a silly nickname she divulged on twitter at some point, so I was using that to be silly!)
Wasn’t there some hack into verified accounts? Those ones with ticks? Maybe she got hacked?
Oops sorry. I’ve had her on mute for some time.
Yeah nothing personal but I was really not a fan of her writing style (to put it mildly)
There’s no ability like media availability!
I’m saddened I’m the first to like this…..
Just two private jets away! 🙂
Woohoo! It’d be awesome if Swipa and HB were both available for the last scrimmage so they can get themselves up to gamespeed/shape (whatever we’re calling it today). Well as up to speed as you can get in 1 scrimmage, anyway.
Also, hopefully HB’s lungs still work. They probably do, that’s probably how you pass protocol. But, please work HB”s lungs? The Kings need you?
Have any of the NBA player COVID+ cases been more than mildly symptomatic?
Rudy Gobert says he still isn’t fully recovered from COVID-19
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/rudy-gobert-says-he-still-isnt-fully-recovered-from-covid-19/
…So his symptoms are likely considered mild, but that sound pretty crappy to have to deal with that and be uncertain of when he’ll be fully back to his old normally functioning self.
If you can’t smell chocolate, does it still taste good?
That would indeed suck and obviously the long-term consequences are unknowable but with dozens of NBA players testing positive and (maybe? so far?) none of them getting more than a bad cold and being unable to host a wine tasting is definitely something.
The hospitalization rate even for people in their 20s across the general population is shockingly high and with all of the NBA players who had tested positive you would expect to see a serious case or two but that doesn’t seem to have happened AFAIK. I’d guess some combination of being young, healthy and 7% body fat has something to do with it, but it still strikes me as strange. My mother – a retired pathologist who doesn’t really follow the NBA much – mentioned out of the blue a couple weeks ago that their should be a study on NBA players vs. the general population to determine risk factors because “all these guys are getting the virus and not getting sick”.
It’d probably be good to study pro athletes in general since it seems like active players in the major N. American sports haven’t had any major illnesses.
Freddie Freeman of the Braves apparently had a pretty rough experience, 104 degree fever.
Was he hospitalized?
Alex Len said he had symptoms. There’s an article either here or on the blog that shan’t be named that talks about it.
Found it. It was in an article by Jame Hamm. Here’s a quote from Len:
Two weeks in I started having symptoms, like no smell, no taste, I had a little bit of chest tightness, Len said. I wasn’t scared or nothing, but I had some symptoms.
Locked and loaded, all positive contributors present
Hey this is good news! Whenever there’s actual good Kings news it makes me happy!
On a side note: Ben Simmons is 1 for 2 so far today from 3. Took both pretty quickly and confidently. If anybody hoped/thought there may be a chance to pry him away from the Sixers, that hope may very well be dead.
Are we sure that the bubble isn’t actually in some parallel dimension?
On a related note, the chance to pry him away from my StR/KH keeper league fantasy team is dying as well.
Someone gave this an up vote?!!
It’s blank for me, just like my expectations for the Kings.
It was succinct.
Sounds like the M*loofs.
They suck, and they sinked!
No news is good news?
They probably wiped their cache.
Looking forward to screaming at the TV once again! Thinking the Kings game first then a round of golf sounds like a good Saturday!
Can’t wait to see everybody and anybody on that court! Seems everyone is posed to take a leap right now. Just excited to watch it happen and unfold. Go Kings!!
I am pretty excited to see live sports, but I am surprised how much the lack of fans changes the feel for me, even on TV. NBA Looks like AAU. I certainly will have a greater appreciation for sport at all levels. Fingers crossed everything works as planned.
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