The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the entire world since 2020, as humanity as a whole has struggled to deal with a disease that has killed millions worldwide. Vaccines have been created to help deal with the issue but many have been skeptical of getting the shot, and as far as basketball fans are concerned, no player represents that demographic as much as Kyrie Irving.
Irving has been vocal about staying unvaccinated, a decision that has caused him to miss several games this season. Initially, the Nets didn't let Irving join the team as he would not be allowed to play in home games thanks to the vaccine mandate in New York, but they relented and allowed him to join the team for road games earlier in the season.
This hasn't worked out as well as they might have hoped, with Irving obviously not being able to get into much of a rhythm and thus being unable to help the Nets. While he has been widely slammed for his decision, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's latest words on ESPN's Get Up. Silver questioned the part of the city's vaccine mandate that allows unvaccinated players to play if they are on another team but not the home team players like Kyrie Irving (via The Athletic).
"The oddity to me is that it only applies to home players," Silver said. "... If ultimately that rule is about protecting people in the arena, it just doesn't 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."
"Being here in the New York market, particularly in the last week, many of the masking restrictions are being lifted," Silver said. "You can just feel it in the city. There are more people in restaurants, more people out and about. While it's my personal view that people should get vaccinated, I can imagine a scenario where Brooklyn, as part of New York City, with a new mayor now ... I could see him deciding to change along the way and say it's no longer necessary to have a mandatory vaccination requirement."
The mandate being lifted or altered would provide a huge boost for the Brooklyn Nets, as it would mean Irving would be eligible for all of their games. A superstar of his caliber is a game-changer for any franchise and if this coincides with Ben Simmons' integration into the team and Kevin Durant's return from injury, it will be very difficult for any team to stop the Nets from winning the NBA championship this season.
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