Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon has tested positive for the coronavirus, he said in a statement Wednesday.
“I recently tested positive for the Covid virus and am currently in quarantine,” his statement said. “I’m doing well, feeling well and progressing well. I plan to join my teammates in Orlando for the resumption of the NBA season and playoffs.”
The Pacers (39-26) are one of the 22 NBA teams scheduled to resume games on July 30 in Orlando, Florida.
Brogdon’s case is not the first that the Pacers organization has dealt with during the pandemic. Myles Turner’s father was hospitalized in Texas with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. He has recovered.
Brogdon, 27, has averaged 16.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists for the Pacers in 48 games this season. He missed the last three games before the season was suspended because of a hip muscle injury, but the stoppage gave him time to recover.
“Malcolm says he’s 100 percent, ready to go,” Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said in mid-April. “He is hungry.”
During the league’s hiatus, Brogdon has been an outspoken advocate for social justice. He is a member of the NBPA executive committee and on Tuesday joined a group of players who are meeting with the league to discuss ways the NBA can address systemic racism when the season resumes.
Brogdon, the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2017, said two weeks ago that he thinks players will have a voice and a platform once the NBA season resumes.
“Everybody going to be watching us,” he said on JJ Redick’s podcast. “We have all the cameras. There are no other sports on. Everybody wants us to play right now, and that means everybody’s going to be watching. There’s only 22 teams that are going to be there. And as you go, if your team advances to the second or third round of the playoffs, the attention on you and your platform … it actually grows the [longer] you stay in Orlando. So that’s definitely a perspective I want guys to think about and understand before they make a decision.”
Brogdon has said that he hopes to lead a march in Indianapolis. His grandfather, John Hurst Adams, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
