The Philadelphia 76ers began the season scorching the competition, but their successes may be coming to a halt after the news broke of Seth Curry testing positive for COVID-19. In the current state of the pandemic, one player testing positive can have a domino effect on the rest of the team, and that seems to be the case this go-around.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Sixers could be looking at a pretty empty bench as some of their players go through the health and safety protocols of contact tracing:
The 76ers are expected to have multiple players miss time due to contact tracing and are still awaiting results of today’s coronavirus testing, sources tell ESPN. Those players were in close contact with Seth Curry, who sources say returned a positive test on Thursday.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 8, 2021
Following their loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night, the news first broke from The Athletic’s Sham Charania that a player of the Sixers organization had tested positive for the coronavirus. It was later revealed by Wojnarowski that the person involved was indeed Curry. At that time, all players were to stay in New York in order to be tested immediately before proceeding with further steps.
Where this leaves the Sixers now is still up for debate until final testing results can give any leeway. Philly’s next game is on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets, which would require the team to know what players are available in an effort to avoid a postponement.
Even with a slight stumble that comes from the contact tracing protocols, the Sixers are still in a fine position at the moment. At 7-2, they sit at first in the Eastern Conference with a slight lead over the Orlando Magic.
The ultimate hope is that most players didn’t contract COVID-19 from Curry, which could leave most players active to play on Saturday.
