Several members of the Houston Rockets, including John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, are expected to miss the team’s season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder due to COVID-19 contact tracing, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Wall and Cousins tested negative for COVID-19, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but were sent home because of a positive test of another teammate. Other players in addition to Wall and Cousins may miss the opener as well, Charania reported, though no additional names were disclosed.
The specific source of team’s potential exposure to COVID-19 has not been confirmed at this time. However Ben McLemore, who is in self-isolation after testing positive for the virus a few days ago, is not the teammate whose positive test initiated contact tracing on the Rockets today, Wojnarowski reported.
News of this afternoon’s COVID-19 concerns for Houston comes hours after reporting surfaced that the team and NBA were investigating a video of James Harden, which appeared to show him at a club.
Harden has since issued a statement via his personal Instagram, saying he attended an event but disputing the nature of the event itself. In the statement, Harden does not address the timeline of the video or its potential ramifications related to COVID-19 protocols.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Rockets’ current contact tracing is not tied to Harden.
Wall, who was not played a regular-season NBA game in two years due to an achilles injury, was acquired by the Rockets this past off-season in a blockbuster trade for Russell Westbrook.
Cousins last played a non-pre-season game during the 2019 NBA Finals, when he was a member of the Golden State Warriors and suffered a torn quad.
Houston’s season begins tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
