Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic feels “great” and is expected to return to the United States in time to join the team’s flight to Orlando, Florida, according to coach Michael Malone.
Jokic delayed his return to Denver after testing positive for the coronavirus in Serbia, Adrian Wojnarowski and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on June 23.
“Nikola feels great,” Malone said in a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday. “We are working to bring him back here. Next Tuesday we are leaving for Orlando; the hope and expectation is that Nikola Jokic will be with us on that plane. From everything I have heard and talked to him, he feels great, he feels good and he’s excited to come back. “
Jokic will require two negative tests within 24 hours in Serbia before he is allowed to travel. Upon arrival in Denver, Jokic will have to undergo a cardiac examination and a negative test once for COVID-19.
The All-Star, who has been asymptomatic according to sources, is one of the “multiple” members of the Nuggets’ travel group to test positive for the coronavirus. The team chose to close their practice facilities as a precaution.
“We have closed the facilities,” Malone confirmed. “… We felt it was the right thing to do today. Today was supposed to be the first day of Phase 3, where all of our players were supposed to be back in the gym and we are allowed to work with them, even 1-on-1 -0. We have put the safety of our team ahead of this Phase 3. There is a possibility that we may open the gym before we leave, depending on the results in the coming days. I will not go into who did the test, but we have had several people in our tour group test positive. “
The Nuggets (43-22) will resume the season with a reduced Jokic if everything goes according to plan. Jokic, who is averaging 20.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists this season, has transformed his body and lost 40 pounds during the break. The images of a slimmed down Jokic in Serbia went viral last month.
Malone said the Nuggets, which are third in the Western Conference, have so far received no indication that any player has chosen to leave Orlando.
With the increase in coronavirus cases in Florida and social unrest across the country due to racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd, Malone said he supports any player or staff member who decides not to participate in the NBA restart.
The Nuggets coach, who revealed in June that he had tested positive for the coronavirus in March, said he had been talking to his players about expanding the team’s platform to continue the social justice movement.
Malone said the NBA Coaches Association is working with the Obama Foundation and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, the nationally acclaimed public interest attorney represented in the movie “Just Mercy.”
“You are going to hear a lot about this not just from me but from all the coaches going to Orlando,” Malone said. “Just because we are resuming the season does not mean that we are moving away from what is happening in our country and around the world right now … Obviously, security, the coronavirus, we all understand what is happening in the country and just as important, keep the conversation on racial justice and how we can improve not just Denver but everything in this country and around the world. “
The Nuggets have already been through a lot with Jokic and others who tested positive for the virus before leaving for Orlando.
Malone said the last team standing in Orlando should be recognized for doing something that no other NBA team has done.
“Maybe the good thing for us is to have the positive tests we’ve had, go there and get that out of the way and do it now,” said Malone. “And when it’s time to get to the bubble, maybe you’re a little bit more immune to getting it. But overall I feel pretty safe [about playing in Orlando].
“There has been an ongoing dialogue and conversation to the effect that whoever wins this year, there will be an asterisk by name and I don’t buy it at all,” Malone added later. “If he can get into a bubble and isolate himself from his friends and family, not have an advantage on the local court, have a four-month league interruption and can go 90 days and get out of there as champion, I think this will be the championship. hardest ever won. There’s no asterisk. “
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