Clippers center Montrezl Harrell was given a seven-day quarantine upon returning to the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World earlier this week, according to Ohm Youngmisuk and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Assuming there are no complications, Harrell is on schedule to clear his quarantine period on Monday, which would make him eligible to participate in the first game of the Clippers’ series against Dallas later that night, per Youngmisuk and Wojnarowski.
If a player who is away from the NBA’s campus with an excused absence receives negative coronavirus test results on each of the seven days before he returns, he’s only subject to a four-day quarantine. If not, he can be subject to a quarantine period of up to 10-to-14 days. Harrell’s seven-day quarantine suggests he may not have precisely followed the league’s protocols while he was away, but probably didn’t flagrantly violate them either.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers didn’t confirm ESPN’s report when asked this afternoon about Harrell’s availability, but hinted that the big man might be subject to a longer quarantine period than four days.
“We have an idea but it’s not ideal, let me put it that way,” Rivers said, in reference to Harrell’s potential return (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic).
Although Harrell – who left the campus due to the death of his grandmother – hasn’t played in a scrimmage or seeding game this summer, the Clippers are hopeful that they’ll be able to throw him right into the fire once he clears quarantine, rather than requiring him to go through any sort of ramp-up period.
“He’s earned that right,” Rivers said (Twitter link via Buha).
Are we sure Harrell will be in basketball shape by Monday? He’ll have just cleared quarantine and hasn’t played in almost a month. I’m not sure he’ll be making much of an impact until the middle of the series