The Brooklyn Nets and Denver Nuggets shut down their practice facilities after positive coronavirus tests among players and/or staff members.
Add the Clippers to that coronavirus list, they shut down their facilities on Thursday after a member of the traveling party tested positive, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
After a positive test for the coronavirus in the Los Angeles Clippers traveling party headed to Orlando next week, the organization closed its practice facility to players and staff as a precaution today, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2020
Woj’s phrasing implies that a staff member, not a player, tested positive.
Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers, just 24 hours earlier, told reporters that “to his knowledge” nobody with the team had tested positive for the coronavirus. Rivers also said he believed that all the players — including Lou Williams — intended to join the team in Orlando.
This isn’t a knock on Rivers, it’s a sign of how fast things change in a coronavirus world.
It is possible the Clippers re-open their facilities before the team heads to Orlando a week from today, July 8.
The Clippers head to the NBA’s Orlando restart as one of the three-favorites to take home the title (along with the Lakers and Bucks).