In the wake of the report that four Nets players had tested positive for COVID-19, the Lakers announced they would be moving into the next phase of their exposure protocol. The Nets last opponent before the NBA suspended games was the Lakers, last Tuesday, March 8th.
This triggered the Lakers opening up testing for the virus to their own players, which took place on Wednesday morning (March 16th). The results of those tests have come back and two Lakers players have tested positive for the virus:
As Shams reports, it looks like all of the Lakers players did not test Wednesday, but that is expected to change after this latest news.
It’s not yet clear who the Lakers players who tested are, and I’m not sure if we ever will unless those players disclose that information themselves. After Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell’s test results were reported by media before those players disclosed that information themselves, the reporting around these cases has shifted more towards allowing the players to disclose this information themselves — if it is disclosed at all.
For example, when the news of the Nets players who tested positive broke, their names were not released, but Kevin Durant did later come out and say he was one of the positive tests. The other Nets players are still not known, but it was reported in the wake of their positive tests that the teams/other people who’d been in contact with those players had been notified. This is a tricky situation to be sure, but I do respect the players’ right to privacy when it comes to medical information — particularly when it’s not related to their ability to play games when we’re in the midst of a suspended season.
In any event, we’ll update you all with more information should it become available — either from the team or the players themselves. In the meantime, stay safe, “home shelter”, and wash your hands ya’ll.