In Brooklyn, the Nets are winners of four out of their last five games and look to be figuring things out on both ends of the floor.
Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving continues to watch from the sidelines as he works his way back to the Nets roster. After officially serving out his five-game suspension, there were rumblings Kyrie could make his return as soon as tomorrow.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. According to Tsai, Irving has not yet fulfilled the conditions of his return. In a chat with the New York Post, the Nets owner also explained why he’s being so tough on Irving.
“He still has work to do,” Nets owner Joe Tsai told The Post on Saturday.
Irving was handed an indefinite suspension, which the Nets said would be at least five games, for promoting an anti-Semitic movie. The All-Star guard reached that five-game threshold Saturday, when the Nets played the Clippers. He also will sit out Sunday against the Lakers — and for as long as it takes for him to complete a set of remedial tasks mandated by the Nets.
“He has to show people that he’s sorry,” Tsai told The Post during the game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday. “What’s important — and what people miss — is he only apologized after he was suspended.”
The Nets have been rolling since Irving’s suspension five games ago, and there is a lot of optimism about how much better the Nets can look when he returns. And while head coach Jacque Vaughn has done a great job leading this Nets team so far, not even he knows what to expect on the Irving situation.
“I do not know. I do know not available [Sunday], I have been told that. So I can give you that,” Jacque Vaughn said before he coached his second game since the Nets removed the interim label from his title and made him their head coach.
Vaughn said he has no firm idea about when Irving might return.
“I don’t,” Vaughn said. “The good thing is Joe put out that statement [Friday] that shows where the collaboration or alignment is right now. I have no idea or timetable at all.”
At this point, there’s no use trying to identify what this Nets team is or how serious they are about competing in the East. But with Kevin Durant looking good, the supporting cast getting stronger, and Kyrie Irving on the way back, the Nets could certainly be in a worse situation right now.
Hopefully, Uncle Drew is able to mend his relationships soon, so he can rejoin his team as quickly as possible and get back to playing ball.
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