The Brooklyn Nets have had it up to here with Kyrie Irving.
Sports
On Tuesday, the Nets suspended NBA star Kyrie Irving, whose blatant opposition to the COVID vaccine would have prevented him from playing in all home games and from practicing with the Nets at their team facility. Since the Nets are highly favored to make it to the 2022 NBA Finals and possibly win the championship, Kyrie’s part-time availability to play away games but anti-vax unavailability to play all home games was just too much for the Nets to bear.
“Given the evolving nature of the situation and after thorough deliberation, we have decided Kyrie Irving will not play or practice with the team until he is eligible to be a full participant,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said in a statement. “Kyrie has made a personal choice, and we respect his individual right to choose. Currently, the choice restricts his ability to be a full-time member of the team, and we will not permit any member of our team to participate with part-time availability. It is imperative that we continue to build chemistry as a team and remain true to our long-established values of togetherness and sacrifice. Our championship goals for the season have not changed, and to achieve these goals each member of our organization must pull in the same direction,” Marks added.
“This is a decision ultimately [owner] Joe Tsai and myself made,” Marks concluded.
Irving is among a couple of dozen professional basketball players who have, for some reason or another, absolutely refused to get the COVID vaccine. Although most teams have chosen to deal with their non-vaxxed players on an individual basis, not every team has that luxury.
Both San Franciso and New York City have passed laws prohibiting anyone over the age of 12 from entering a gym, fitness center, or sports arena unless they have been vaccinated. The law applies to players on the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks, and the Brooklyn Nets. Or, in other words, the law prevents Kyrie Irving from competing on his home court for a championship run along with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and the other Nets players unless he chooses to get the vaccine.
Too bad for him (and the Nets, and the Nets’ fans) he has chosen NOT to get the vaccine.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Kyrie has called his vaccine status a “private matter,” yet still wants everyone to know that he is not anti-vaccine. Instead, he says that although he has been doing “research” to learn more about the shot, he’s upset and refuses to get vaxxed because people are losing their jobs over vaccine mandates.
“To him, this is about a grander fight than the one on the court and Irving is challenging a perceived control of society and people’s livelihood, according to sources with knowledge of Irving’s mindset. It is a decision that he believes he is capable to make given his current life dynamics,” Charnia said.
Kyrie Irving’s missed games are expected to cost him $16 million-plus in salary this season and an additional $186 million for an extension he would have been eligible for at the end of the season.
Instead, the odd but skilled man who believes the earth is flat is now being considered by Net’s brass for a trade. Additionally, Irving has become a poster boy of sorts for the Trump’s and their MAGA fanatics who also shun the vaccine as unnecessary and as a ploy to control the masses.
Kyrie just sacrificed more than Kaepernick ever did! https://t.co/bMNryRnIlI
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 12, 2021
Interestingly, not only is Kyrie Irving anti-vax, but he’s also anti-mask.
In September, Irving made an unannounced visit to a school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. Naturally, his visit caused the students to go berserk with excitement over his presence — and Kyrie spent hours shaking hands, hugging students, and taking photos with the entire school.
However, not only was he not vaccinated but he was also not masked, which put everyone inside the school at great risk.
“Kyrie just wants to be a voice for the voiceless,” a member of his camp said as if to suggest that his bizarre actions are all for a greater good. However, the truth is that Kyrie just wants to be selfish and have his cake and eat it too. He wants what HE wants, even if it puts his entire team at risk of a health crisis in the midst of a championship run.
And so, Kyrie is about to lose tens of millions of dollars in generational wealth, he could soon be traded from the Nets and away from his (once close) friend Kevin Durant, and he could soon be out of the NBA altogether.
Is Kyrie Irving right to stand his ground on the basis of what he claims are his personal morals? Or is he a moron for failing to get the shot that millions have now received over the past 10 months — and risk losing millions of dollars and possibly his entire career in the process?
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“The fact that in our lifetimes that there are so many holes and so many pockets in our history… Is the Earth flat or round? You need to do research on it… they lie to us.” – Kyrie Irving
Hmm. I had hoped a few men would’ve chimed in first (BD, Wil, Saleem…). But okay, DJ asked: [ Is Kyrie Irving right to stand his ground on the basis of what he claims are his personal morals? Or is he a moron for failing to get the shot that millions have now received over the past 10 months — and risk losing millions of dollars and possibly his entire career in the process? ] Kyrie certainly has a right to stand his ground on the basis of what he claims are his personal morals. But given that he’s a bit of a “headcase” – a “kook,” if you will (his opposition to getting the vaccine notwithstanding)….his willingness to “risk losing millions of dollars and possibly his entire career in the process” is Kyrie being Kyrie. However, now that the Nets have made it clear that he has no more wiggle room we’ll see if he’s… Read more »