Los Angeles (AFP)

Brooklyn star Kevin Durant, barred from starting Friday's game against Toronto because he was under a Covid-19 protocol traceability investigation, was then cleared to play by the NBA before being definitively returned to the locker room.

A rare imbroglio, consequence of the delicate context of the coronavirus pandemic which continues to rage in the United States, occurred within the framework of this meeting finally lost by the Nets (123-117).

The North American Basketball League, whose protocol is that a player with a potential contact case, and therefore subject to a traceability investigation, to stay away from the team, decided before the kickoff sending Durant couldn't start this match.

A few minutes later, she nevertheless allowed him to come into play at the end of the first quarter.

And twist, in the 3rd quarter, the latter was forced to leave the floor of the Barclays Center.

He learned this decision, amazed, as he was resting not far from his team's bench and returned to the locker room, throwing a bottle of water on the ground in frustration.

The NBA ended up explaining the context that led it to make these contrary decisions.

According to spokesperson Tim Frank, "Durant, tested negative three times in the past 24 hours including two on Friday, interacted in the afternoon with a person who received an inconclusive test result shortly before the game." .

"So he was first kept on the sidelines, while the result of that test was being reviewed, because according to league health and safety protocols, we don't require a player to be quarantined before a close contact has a confirmed positive test, ”added Tim Frank.

- Frustration, incomprehension -

Which doesn't explain why Durant was nevertheless allowed to play, given the risk involved.

However during the match "the result of the test passed by the person with whom Durant interacted came back positive (...) Out of excess of caution, Durant did not finish the match", Frank concluded, adding that the league was looking for now to determine how close the Brooklyn player has been with the person in question.

If the coach Steve Nash, who will have to do without the services of his star on Saturday in Philadelphia, did not hide his circumspection, deploring that "it's hard to lose Kevin Durant twice in the same game", the latter does not not mad on social networks, asking for his "release" on Twitter ("Free me") and criticizing the explanations of the NBA.

"It's frustrating, we follow the protocols, we get tested every day, so I don't understand what happened. He couldn't play, then he could, then they took him back," railed team-mate James Harden, wondering how the match could have come about given that Durant and the other players on the squad shared the same dressing room before the match.

"KD" contracted Covid last year while in rehabilitation after a ruptured Achilles tendon.

He returned to the court, after an 18-month absence at the end of December, making a remarkable start to the season, averaging 30.8 points per game.

At the beginning of January, he had nevertheless already had to observe a first quarantine of ten days, or three missed matches, for having already been in contact with a person who had contracted the virus.

© 2021 AFP