'He just forgot': NBA player quarantined over virus breach
The Dallas Mavericks had Saturday off inside the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World, providing Kristaps Porzingis plenty of time to take his regularly scheduled COVID-19 test.
The 24-year-old, however, never showed up.
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Porzingis, after missing his test, was placed into quarantine inside the bubble and missed Dallas' scrimmage against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
Assuming Porzingis tests negative, he is expected to rejoin the team on Monday.
“He just forgot to get tested,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.
“When that happens, for safety reasons, he’s unable to join the team the following day.
"He’s getting retested today and I believe that he’ll be able to rejoin us tomorrow.”
Porzingis wasn’t the only NBA player who forgot to show up for a test.
According to Mike Singer of the Denver Post, Nuggets star Paul Millsap skipped his test Friday, too, and missed their scrimmage on Saturday as a result.
Mavs coach hopes players learn from mistake
Porzingis was averaging 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game this season with Dallas when play was suspended, his first on the court with the team after recovering from an ACL injury in 2018.
The Mavericks will enter the season restart with a 40-27 record, the seventh-best in the Western Conference.
While Porzingis’ slip doesn’t matter much now, as he just missed a team scrimmage, a similar mistake down the road could force players to miss critical games either in the postseason or with postseason implications.
His mistake, Carlisle hopes, will be a good learning moment for the rest of his team.
“He was very contrite and really felt bad about letting the team down,” Carlisle said, via the Dallas Morning News.
“Something like this is something that I think all of us can take as a cautionary tale.
"We’ve just got to remember that the details of the situation that we’re involved in are very, very important.”
