9:51am: Rivers expects to return to Orlando sometime this weekend, tweets Charania. Assuming he only requires a four-day quarantine period, Rivers should have a chance to be active for Houston’s first seeding game next Friday.
9:28am: Rockets guard Austin Rivers has left the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World in order to attend to an “urgent family matter,” reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Based on the NBA’s protocols, Rivers will be subject to a quarantine period of at least four days when he returns to Orlando. He’ll have to remain quarantined for up to 10-14 days if he doesn’t return daily negative coronavirus tests for each day that he’s off campus (or each of the last seven days, if he’s away for more than a week).
Unless Rivers’ absence is brief, it seems unlikely he’ll be available for Houston’s first seeding game on July 31 vs. Dallas. However, he still has plenty of time to return and get back up to game speed before the playoffs begin (around August 17). The Rockets are hopeful he’ll be able to return soon, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.
Rivers is the fourth player known to have left the campus for a personal emergency. Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, Clippers center Montrezl Harrell, and Clippers guard Patrick Beverley have also done so.
Did Doc leave as well?
what’s that like 8 or so players that have left the bubble for an ‘urgent family matter’?…strange coincidence
I’m not sure it’s as big of a “coincidence” as you think. I mean, we are still in the middle of a pandemic with a virus that is affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. Could be that these players have family members that are ill or it could be that they are dealing with something else serious. I highly doubt these guys are going to use “urgent personal matter” to just leave the campus. Drop the drama. People deal with difficult things every single day. Just because you aren’t right now doesn’t mean that others are not.
No kidding? There’s a pandemic? When did this happen?
They finally got Westbrook and Mbah a Moute showing up recently, now they’re down a man again. This should mean more playing time for DeMarre Carroll, who’s probably even better on defense (and bigger as well).