Durant rips NBA in tweet after being pulled from game

A bizarre night in the NBA took another turn Friday when Kevin Durant took aim at the league on Twitter after he was pulled from the Brooklyn Nets' game against the Toronto Raptors due to health and safety protocols.

Durant was removed from the contest in the third quarter after league-stipulated contact tracing due to his exposure earlier in the day to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. He was unable to start the game because of protocols but entered late in the first quarter.

The NBA said afterward that proper protocols were followed. "Under the league's health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until a close contact has a confirmed positive test," a league statement reads, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.

Nets head coach Steve Nash said postgame that it's unlikely Durant will be able to play Saturday in Philadelphia.

"It's just a contact-tracing procedure, and I think it's to be determined how much time he'll have to miss, but we're just gathering information at this point," Nash said, per YES Network.

Teammates, however, sounded more concerned.

"I'm thinking to myself, well, if it's contact tracing and we're all in the locker room together, that means there's no game if he's not going to be able to play. That was my thought process," James Harden said, according to CBS Sports' James Herbert.

"I would've said if he's sitting for contact tracing, I mean what the hell, he's with all of us on the court," Joe Harris added, per ESPN's Malika Andrews.