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Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 for several months now.
Yet on Friday morning, Carlisle tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of their game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden — and had to retreat to his hotel room.
“Well, in this year of the unexpected, this morning — head coaches in the league are now doing game-day testing with the players ‚ and so I had an unexpected positive test this morning,” Carlisle said, . “There’s a chance and a hope that it will be a false-positive.
“This seems like possibly a mistake, but for these reasons I’m entering the [NBA health and safety] protocol. I’m still at the hotel here in New York.”
Carlisle said he feels fine, and assumes the test must be a mistake. According to The Dallas Morning News, he’s been fully vaccinated since January.
While it’s still possible that he’s contracted the coronavirus — there are multiple variants out there, and the vaccines are not 100% effective — it’s rather unlikely.
Still, Carlisle and the Mavericks aren’t taking any chances.
“It definitely was unexpected,” Carlisle said, . “I have no symptoms. I feel great. I worked out earlier this morning. But this is just one of these situations where we’ve all got to be light on our feet.”
So, with Carlisle out, the team instead gave the nod to assistant Jamahl Mosley.
“This is a great opportunity for [Mosley],” Carlisle said, . “He’s obviously, in my opinion, ready for this kind of opportunity. I think this is something he’ll thrive in.”
There have been more than 30.5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States since the pandemic began, and there were more than 77,000 new cases on Thursday alone — marking a 20% increase over the past two weeks, .
The country is administering nearly three million vaccines each day on average, an all-time high, and several teams — including the Mavericks — have started to have their players and staff receive vaccinations.
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