Denver Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. expected to return vs. Dallas Mavericks after completing virus protocols, source says
Porter has been in quarantine since last Thursday due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols. His seven-day protocol, which came as a result of contact tracing, ends on Wednesday night, as first reported by The Denver Post and Altitude Sports.
Porter has missed the Nuggets’ past three games since scoring 30 points and recording 10 rebounds in a loss at Sacramento last Tuesday.
Porter isn’t the only Nuggets player to have been impacted by COVID-19. Last summer, the Nuggets had members of the organization who tested positive, including star center Nikola Jokic.
And power forward Paul Millsap said he lost his grandfather in recent days to the coronavirus.
“A few days ago, lost a grandfather to COVID, so I understand what is going on,” Millsap said Wednesday. “It is definitely bigger than basketball; at the end of the day, basketball is just a game that we play to entertain. There’s a lot more things going in the world than basketball, obviously.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said the team held a discussion at practice about prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, deciding not to file criminal charges against Rusten Sheskey, the white Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, seven times on Aug. 23. The shooting left Blake paralyzed and prompted NBA players to protest by shutting down play for three days in the Orlando bubble, with the WNBA and Major League Baseball also postponing games.
Millsap spoke to the team and implored his teammates to use their platforms to educate and try to impact change “for good.”
“Obviously we’re disappointed with what happened,” Millsap said of the prosecutors’ decision, which was announced on Tuesday. “For us, as Americans, we want justice. We feel like it doesn’t matter who it is. If you commit a wrong act, justice is going to prevail. A little disappointed with it, but it is not going to stop us from fighting and continuing to push forward and fighting for what we believe.
“We are in a situation right now where we are fighting for change, we are fighting for justice,” Millsap added. “We are trying to bring awareness out there, we want to get more people to understand what is going on, and how it is affecting our communities and how it is affecting the world and America. It was important for me to share that with these guys, let them know that their voices are heard out there. Each of these guys got a lot of fans and a lot of people that are following them. If we use their following and put the word and the message out there, we feel like we can make this thing happen a little faster than where it’s going right now.”
The Nuggets were one of the most vocal teams when it came to social justice issues during the NBA season restart in Orlando. Malone reminded his players to stay active and engaged.
Asked for his reaction to the events unfolding in Washington, D.C., where angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Malone said he had just learned about the situation from a public relations staffer, before he met with reporters virtually.
“There is so much going on,” Malone said. “I reminded our players about that. Myself, our team, we get so caught into our day-to-day jobs and basketball and trying to win a game — and that is what we get paid to do — but we have to find ways to take a step back and to really feel what is going on in the world.”