Kyrie Irving is set to return to the Nets this season, despite him refusing to get the vaccine. Irving was initially dropped from the team due to the vaccine mandate in New York, and the team did not see any sense in having Irving as a part-time player eligible to play only half the games.
But since then, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has caused many of the Nets’ players to enter health and safety protocols. Thus, the team decided to allow him to return as a part-time player, in order to give them an option for away games. But as soon as Irving returned, he entered the league’s health and safety protocols after testing positive for the virus himself.
And it appears there are a lot of people within the franchise unhappy about Irving’s return. In a report published by Rolling Stone, one former Nets official noted that Irving’s return is an indicator of how much power and leverage the star players hold over the franchise.
“It’s ridiculous,” a former Nets official familiar with how the team’s stars boss around the bosses tells Rolling Stone. “That’s what you sign up for, when you get those players.”
One unnamed executive from the Nets’ front office also noted that there was no surprise when Irving tested positive for COVID-19, but there was a sense of relief because it sent a message to the anti-vaccine groups that were supporting Kyrie for the stance he took when he refused to get vaccinated.
“When Ky tested positive, it was meant to be,” one of several members of the Nets front office to get Covid over the past week texts RS from isolation. “But also part of me was glad that it shut up the anti-vaxxed hailing him.”
Irving is not expected to return to the team until he clears the health and safety protocols. And after that, he will practice with the team in order to ramp up his preparation, before he can make a proper return. Shams Charania has speculated that Irving could play for the team sometime in January.
