Joe Harris says he suffered severe sprained ankle just before NBA break

Like everyone else in the NBA, Brooklyn sharpshooter Joe Harris has spent the last month in his apartment, not going out, not getting to play basketball.

Harris just might have been doing that anyway.

Harris spoke to UVA Today (he is a Virginia alumnus) and said he would have been sidelined anyway with a sprained ankle suffered against the Lakers in the final games the nets played before the league shut down (hat tip NetsDaily).

“So I was going to be out a month, no matter what, and then [the NBA shutdown] went down literally the next day,” Harris said. “I wasn’t even with the team. I flew back to New York with one of our trainers, and we were supposed to play at Golden State [on March 12]. The rest of the team was in San Francisco, and they just had to pack up their stuff and leave from there.”

Harris added that he has been able to get into the Nets facility for treatment, but that’s it.

“The only loophole that I have right now is that the NBA allowed guys that were in the midst of rehab go into the facility and work with the trainer, so I’ve been able to do that for the last few weeks,” Harris said. “But when I go in, I have to wear a mask and gloves the entire time, and only you and the trainer are allowed in there.”

Harris also had time to post do this for the Nets on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_cpVuLhXBn

If the NBA returns for the postseason (or whatever), Harris should be good to go. The Nets will not have Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving, and it would be a tough first-round matchup against Toronto (as currently set).

After that, Harris will be a coveted free agent in the offseason — what team couldn’t use more shooting? — and while he’s said he would like to stay in Brooklyn he will have options. And he’s about to get a nice pay raise, too.