The Brooklyn Nets have been without starting point guard Kyrie Irving to start the 2021-22 NBA season. Irving remains without the COVID-19 vaccine, making him ineligible to play in games at Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden.
Not wanting a part-time player on the team, the Nets decided that Irving would not participate in practices and games with the team until he is a full-time player.
t does not seem like Irving will be getting the vaccine any time soon, but changes in New York City could see him return to the court sooner than later.
There has been a lot of uproar in New York City because of the mandates put in place by Mayor Bill de Blasio. His controversial mandate has been met with a lot of pushback, but Mayor-elect Eric Adams vows that he is going to revisit the handling of that mandate.
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Adams isn’t going to step on de Blasio’s toes, but he will certainly make changes he feels are best for the city once he takes office later on. He has urged the Mayor to meet with union leaders about it and try to find a solution everyone can agree on.
“We need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates. Now, I stated I did not want to Monday-morning-quarterback the mayor. This is his time to be the man, he has to make the decisions,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
That decision is an important one for everyone in the city, including the Nets and New York Knicks. Adams is hopeful that de Blasio can find a solution, but if he is unable to, Adams himself will get to work on it in January.
“I hope the mayor — and I am encouraging him to do that — to sit down with unions and come to a resolution,” Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “And if he doesn’t, if this is still going to January, I’m going to sit down with them and we’re going to get this resolved.”
“If you know when you sit down at the table that no matter what happens, you’re going to not have to deal with what the current mayor stated, that is unfair,” he explained of his reluctance to second-guess de Blasio. “I would not want someone to do that to me as a man, and I’m not going to do it to this man. Here’s an opportunity for him to bring about a resolution and when I inherit this situation, I’m going to bring about a resolution.”
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The changes Adams references could change the landscape of things for the Brooklyn Nets. The mandates in place keeping Irving from participating in games is a New York City issue, not an NBA issue. If the mandate is adjusted and unvaccinated people can take part in events again, Irving will likely be eligible to return to the team.
Brooklyn would assuredly accept Irving back with open arms, as he is a key contributor to what they are looking to accomplish in winning an NBA Championship.
