(670 The Score) Bulls guard Garrett Temple was absent from practice as the team opened group activities at training camp Sunday because he tested positive for COVID-19 recently.
Temple is in his ninth day of quarantine at a Chicago hotel after he tested positive on Nov. 28, two days after Thanksgiving.
“I’ve done the contact tracing,” Temple said on a Zoom call Sunday from his hotel room. “I’m pretty sure I know I got it from a family member. I was in Louisiana during Thanksgiving. My family got together, and I believe I got it from a family member. Most of my family did not get it, which was good. My dad, my mom, nobody over 60, nobody with underlying conditions has it, which is great. My wife and my son are both negative, which is great. That’s where we are today. I’m past most of the symptomatic stages. I was symptomatic.”
Temple, 34, is hopeful he can rejoin the Bulls at practice Wednesday, as he’s feeling better now. He'll need to be symptom-free for 24 hours and test negative twice to rejoin the team.
“I don’t usually get headaches,” Temple said of how he first knew something was wrong. “So a headache, I was like, ‘This is not normal.’ And then I talked to other people. And the headache, that was the biggest thing for me at first. There was some fatigue. The worst was the day I tested positive. I just had a lot of fatigue. I just didn’t have any energy at all. I haven’t had really any lost of taste or smell. That’s one of the things that people talk about. I haven’t had that. Congested nose, not anything crazy. A cough, but again, it wasn’t a cough that you’d say I’d need to go to the doctor for. The shortness of breath. Y’all live in Chicago, so anytime you work out or run when it’s cold outside and you get that hollow feeling in your chest, that’s the kind of feeling that the shortness of breath for me was. So I think those things were the main symptoms.”
An NBA veteran of more than a decade, Temple joined the Bulls on a one-year, $5-million deal in free agency after averaging 10.3 points for the Nets in 62 games this past season. He knew new Bulls coach Billy Donovan from his college days, as they squared off while Donovan led the Florida Gators and Temple played at LSU. It was Donovan who called Temple to inform him the Bulls were interested in free agency, and Temple already loved the city of Chicago from visiting.
So it quickly turned into a fit. Temple is a 34.7% 3-point shooter in his career, and he’s expected to fill backcourt and wing minutes off the bench.
“That’s one thing I’ve been able to do when I go to teams – honestly fit whatever role the coach wants me to be in.” Temple said. “That’s been kind of my calling card since I’ve been in the league. Obviously, coming here and helping Thad (Young) in terms of that veteran leadership role, I think that was one thing that I appealed to them with. And then the ability to play multiple. The way the game is going, one, two, three, even four is almost interchangeable nowadays. So the fact that I can guard ones, twos, three and sometimes in small lineups fours, I think I’ll be able to do that. I’ll be a guy that can knock down some shots from the perimeter. And that savvy veteran that can make plays, just understanding the game. So like I said with the talent that we have, the young talent that we have, I think I’ll be able to mesh well just integrating myself and just being that Swiss Army knife.”
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.