Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic Joins Other Teammates in COVID-19 Protocols Before Christmas Game Against Utah Jazz; NBA Struggles in Securing Entertaining Christmas Day Games
The All-NBA guard of the Dallas Mavericks Luka Doncic has entered the league's health and safety protocols, joining his other teammates, threatening the loss of another league star for its slate of Christmas Day games.
Luka Doncic Possibly Misses Christmas Day Game Against Utah Jazz Due to Health And Safety Protocol
According to ESPN, the basketball star from Slovenia, Luka Doncic, and his backcourt partner Trey Burke entered the COVID-19 health and safety protocols imposed by the league on Wednesday. Doncic and Burke joined their teammates Josh Green, Maxi Kleber, and Tim Hardaway Jr. on the sideline, threatening the Dallas lineup in the upcoming Christmas day game against Western Conference contender Utah Jazz.
The Dallas Mavericks team has to face heavyweight opponents before the year ends. The Mavs team would be playing against the Giannis Antetokounmpo led-Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and they would face Utah on Saturday night in Salt Lake City in the final of ESPN/ABC's five Christmas Day games.
Doncic had missed five straight games with what the team said was a sore ankle. However, despite missing some games, there were plans for the star point guard to return on Thursday against the Bucks and eventually be available against Utah Jazz.
Meanwhile, NBA players have to return consecutive negative tests in a 24-hour period for them not to be sidelined for 10 days before they could resume playing for their respective teams.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Wants to move forward with Regular Season Despite COVID-19 Outbreak Threat
On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver used his time on ESPN to tell all of the fans of the league that the NBA would not be pausing this time, unlike a season ago in March 2020.
Based on the report, the NBA as a league did not see any "logic" in halting its business again. With vaccines and booster shots available, and public health experts calling for shorter isolations for those who test positive for COVID-19 after vaccination, Silver emphasized that he wanted to continue the games this season.
Silver stated that the league could demonstrate that there was a way that people could move forward again by recognizing that the virus unfortunately was not going anywhere. Silver added it would become a part of people's daily lives for the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, one day after Silver spoke, the NBA announced two game postponements – the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls match on Wednesday and the faceoff between Brooklyn Nets the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
Silver also pointed out that the omicron variant of the virus took over as the dominant strain among 90% of the NBA's recent positive tests. The NBA Commissioner added that the positive results came from a large group who received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. He stressed that 97% of players are already vaccinated and 65% have received their respective booster shots against the virus. Silver also mentioned that the third shot hit more than 90% of the players.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Jess Smith
WATCH: Woj: Luka Doncic enters NBA's health and safety protocols | NBA Today -ESPN