Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid will both be unable to start the second half of the season with the Philadelphia 76ers, though neither All-Star will be missing from the Eastern Conference leaders’ lineup for long.
Both will miss Philadelphia’s game Thursday in Chicago, and Simmons will also miss the 76ers’ contest on Friday against Washington.
Provided both continue to test negative for COVID-19, they would be cleared after those games, the 76ers said. Simmons and Embiid both traveled to Atlanta for Sunday’s All-Star Game, only to learn the night before that they were flagged by contact tracing data.
The barber that both visited prior to their private flights to Atlanta tested positive for COVID-19, and even though neither Embiid nor Simmons