Denver Nuggets franchise center Nikola Jokic has tested positive for the Coronavirus.
First reported by The Denver Post‘s Mike Singer, Denver Nuggets All-Star center Nikola Jokic tested positive for the Coronavirus last week.
Jokic, who wasn’t displaying any symptoms of the virus, was at an exhibition basketball game in Belgrade where one of the players who was in close proximity to Jokic later tested positive for COVID-19. Tennis star Novak Djokovic, who sat next to Jokic at the event, also tested positive for the Coronavirus.
Already having started the quarantine process, Jokic will have to remain in Serbia until he receives two negative tests within 24 hours. Upon returning stateside, he’ll have to undergo a cardiac screening and test negative for the virus once again.
While players were expected to be back in their local market on Monday and players who were abroad were to be back on June 15, Jokic is expected to return to Denver within a week. Mandatory individual workouts will begin on July 1.
Jokic has already lost 40 pounds during the league’s stoppage, according to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst, so the concern isn’t so much about him missing any time with individual workouts as making sure he’s perfectly healthy when he returns.
Nuggets head coach Mike Malone recently announced that he also tested positive for COVID-19 soon after the league stopped play. Two months ago, the Nuggets announced that a member of the organization tested positive for the virus but it’s not known whether or not that individual was Malone.
The Nuggets are currently the third seed in the Western Conference standings.