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Andrew LopezESPN
Three New Orleans Pelicans players have tested positive for the coronavirus, executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin told reporters Tuesday.
Griffin, citing privacy laws, did not say which players tested positive, but he did say those players are isolated. He added that all three tests took place when the players returned to the facility last week.
“The league had a system designed to detect these cases. The system worked and we are going to deal with it as best we can to move forward,” Griffin said.
“But from a basketball point of view, I think you will see that COVID has a huge impact on teams and even on some of the teams that entered the bubble as a playoff seed. You have seen that Brooklyn has really been damaged by the Situation COVID. So again, this is something that we are all at the mercy of the same enemy. “
Last week, the NBA announced that 16 players tested positive for the 22 teams that will play during the season restart in Orlando, Florida. Sources told ESPN that the three Pelicans players were among those positive tests.
“We haven’t had one since then,” said Griffin. “We are dealing with this as we go along.”
Griffin, a cancer survivor, said he will join the team in Orlando, but that the status of whether coach Alvin Gentry, who is 65, will be there “needs to be determined.”
Gentry, however, said Tuesday that he plans to be in Orlando.
“My plan right now is to be with the team in Orlando, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think as the season went on hiatus, we were playing really good basketball. So I hope I can get back to that. That’s why I’m not really treating it as a training ground; I would try more to pick it up where we left off when the season was interrupted, “he said.
The Pelicans sit 3.5 games behind the eighth seed Memphis Grizzlies. His season is slated to restart on July 30 against the Utah Jazz.
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