If you’ve been keeping up with the NBA over the summer, you’ll already know about the crisis going on in Brooklyn.
Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant were about to enter their first full season together and Championship aspirations couldn’t be higher.
Unfortunately, Kyrie has refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which (due to New York City guidelines) has essentially disqualified him from playing basketball this year.
The whole thing has turned into a huge mess, as the guy has pretty much left the Nets, and all of his teammates, hanging.
Recently, NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave his thoughts on the situation, speaking very delicately to the media ahead of tip-off day.
“Frankly, I hope that Kyrie, despite how strongly he feels about the vaccination, ultimately decides to get vaccinated, because I’d love to see him play basketball this season, and I’d love to see the Brooklyn Nets have their full compliment of players on the floor,” Silver said.
"I hope that Kyrie, despite how strongly he feels about the vaccination, ultimately decides to get vaxxed because I’d love to see him play basketball this season & I’d love to see the Nets have their full compliment of players on the floor."
– Adam Silverpic.twitter.com/vtgD5FUZEw
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 18, 2021
While he did not outright criticize Kyrie, Silver did make sure to express support for the vaccine and the New York City mandates in particular.
“It’s indiscriminate in terms of who it impacts. And I think it’s perfectly appropriate that NY and other cities have passed laws that require people who both work and visit arenas, to be vaccinated.”
The NBA itself doesn’t actually have any rules in place forcing players to get the vaccine. In fact, of the 2% of players who are unvaccinated, Kyrie is really the only one who has suffered these types of consequences.
So far, Irving has shown no indication he ever plans on getting vaccinated and New York City officials do not seem to be relaxing the mandate any time soon.
As it looks, this could be a crisis that lasts the entire season and that’s not just a loss for the Nets, that’s a loss for the fans as well.
