Brooklyn Nets star point guard Kyrie Irving has yet to play in a home game for the team due to New York City’s current mandates on COVID-19.
The mandate states that if any player on the Nets or New York Knicks wants to play in the city, they must be vaccinated. Road players who are visiting the Nets or Knicks are not affected by these mandates. This has drawn some criticism from those who were hoping to see Kyrie in Brooklyn, and one of the most notable critics of the mandates is NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Silver spoke about it during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up this morning.
“This law in New York, the oddity of it to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said. “I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays but the home player can’t. To me, that’s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
Silver added that he thought that people should get vaccinated and boosted against the virus, but that he believes that “there is a feel in the city” that people are more out and about.
Irving’s absence from the Brooklyn Nets home games has been one that has had a huge effect on the team. The team has gone just 3-5 at home in games that Irving wasn’t able to play in since his return back in January.
Irving’s former teammate James Harden said yesterday that he wished that the Big 3 of himself, Irving, and Kevin Durant could have played more games together while all active. If they had been on the court together all along this season, it could have possibly prevented Harden from getting upset about his situation with the Nets.
Instead, the Nets have Ben Simmons along with Seth Curry and Andre Drummond, all of whom could still be a part of a dangerous team if New York City decides to update their COVID mandates going forward.
[ESPN]
