The 2021-22 NBA season is about to commence soon and the Brooklyn Nets have a huge problem. Their superstar guard, Kyrie Irving, is yet to be vaccinated. In fact, the 29-year-old hasn’t been vocal at all regarding his vaccination status.
This has led to many NBA fans and sports pundits criticizing Irving. Few have even suggested that the Nets should simply trade him and get a replacement for him. But who would want to take on Irving at this point? He is not vaccinated, and it puts everyone around him at risk.
Moreover, the Nets themselves can’t afford to trade away a player of Irving’s caliber when the franchise is hoping to win the 2022 NBA title. Recently, Nets head coach Steve Nash confirmed that the team is ready to play half of the games without Kyrie since he cannot play in home games until he is vaccinated.
NBA analyst Malika Andrews gave her two cents on the situation of Kyrie Irving. She revealed:
“When I asked Kevin Durant about how he is viewing all of this. When we were sitting down in Brooklyn on media day he said, ‘You know it’s an individual decision.’ And I understand in some ways taking that approach or maybe that’s just what you say facing forward. But that is the antithesis of what a pandemic is. You do not have the privilege of just looking at yourself, you have to look at the people next to you because that’s how we got this being the most deadly pandemic and has killed over 700,000 people in the United States. That’s not all on Kyrie, but it’s on all of us to do our small part and his small part is in that locker room.”
Malika Andrews with the 💯 on the Kyrie Irving situation:#NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/dYeFR2FG7X
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧' 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) October 11, 2021
As Andrews said, each one of us has to do our small part to fight off the pandemic. Hopefully, Irving gets that message and gets vaccinated as soon as possible.
Otherwise, as NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith pointed out a few days ago, Kevin Durant might get fed up with Kyrie’s shenanigans. The result? He might ask the organization to get rid of Kyrie and Smith believes if Kevin Durant says enough is enough, Kyrie will be traded.
