Kings guard Buddy Hield did not attend the team’s first practice inside the NBA bubble Friday and has yet to join his teammates at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
Kings coach Luke Walton said four members of the team’s 35-person travel party did not accompany the team to Florida because they have not cleared NBA protocol after testing positive for Covid-19. Walton would not identify those individuals by name, but social media posts indicated Hield was still in Sacramento.
Hield, forward Jabari Parker and center Alex Len all confirmed they tested positive for COVID-19 last month. The Kings closed their practice facility last week after a fourth member of the team’s travel party tested positive for Covid-19.
“I’m not going to get into the names,” Walton said. “I’ll make that a personal decision, but from the travel party, out of the 35, we left four people back and from those four nobody has passed NBA protocol yet to rejoin us, but we are hopeful that some of them are getting close.”
The Kings arrived in Orlando on Wednesday. They were required to quarantine in their hotels rooms at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort for 48 hours after their arrival. Friday’s workout marked the first team basketball activities the Kings have conducted since the NBA season was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Walton said all teams participating in the return of NBA play must be prepared to practice and compete in the absence of key players.
“That’s part of the things that all the teams are going through right now because with this is so much unknown,” Walton said. “There could be a week. There could be - hey, someone doesn’t come at all. That’s just the reality of what it is, so I’m very open to our team about that.
“We’re trying to create the mindset that we’re going to embrace all of it. We know it’s going to be crazy. People are going to join us. Maybe they won’t. Maybe people who are here test positive at some point, and every team has to go through this, so we’ve got to be ready to accept what our roles are. Our roles are going to change as this thing goes, and the teams that do that most efficiently are going to give themselves the best advantage.”
Team officials declined to state whether Hield, Len and Parker were with the team Thursday and earlier Friday.
Hield and Len are both believed to have tested positive on June 22, the first day NBA teams conducted mandatory testing after players returned to home markets. Parker tested positive several days earlier in Chicago.
Hield told The Sacramento Bee he would “be fine” on June 25 and Walton said “all three of those guys are reporting doing much better” on July 1.
Under the NBA’s health and safety guidelines, any player who tests positive must quarantine and produce two negative tests results before receiving medical clearance to make the trip to Florida. Protocols also require players who test positive to refrain from exercise training for a period of two weeks from the date of the first positive test or the resolution of viral symptoms, whichever date is later.
Under those guidelines, any player who tests positive will be out a minimum of 14 days before he can participate in practices or games. Well over two weeks have passed since Hield, Len and Parker tested positive for the virus, but apparently they are being held back under some portion of the protocol.
Hield is the team’s second-leading scorer and one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in the NBA. Len was carving out a role as a defensive enforcer following a mid-season trade. Parker has appeared in only one game for the Kings, but he could provide quality depth in an unpredictable bubble environment.
“It’s a troubling time,” Kings centre Richaun Holmes said. “A lot of unknowns and things like that, but we’ve definitely been in contact with those guys and always let their voice be heard in the group. We just want them to get healthy - get as healthy as possible and make sure everything is good with them and their families - and then when they get down here, be ready to rock and roll.”
Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings.
