Kyrie Irving working on return to Nets, would play in road games
The Brooklyn Nets essentially exiled All-Star guard Kyrie Irving away from the team earlier this fall and before the start of the season because of his outright refusal to receive one of the safe and available COVID-19 vaccines that has made him ineligible to participate in any games held in New York City because of local laws regarding entering venues such as Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden.
Without Irving, the Nets sit at 21-8 but have recently dealt with multiple coronavirus-related issues and injury setbacks. Brooklyn previously was against allowing Irving to play in just road games in places where no mandates prohibiting unvaccinated individuals from entering arenas existed, but NBA insiders Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania now report that's no longer the case:
Breakthrough COVID-19 cases are spreading like wildfire throughout the NBA, NFL and NHL this month, and the Association has widely encouraged all eligible players, coaches, referees and other employees needed to complete games to get booster shots as soon as possible to prevent people from being sidelined due to serious coronavirus symptoms.
Brooklyn superstar and NBA Most Valuable Player candidate Kevin Durant recently hinted he'd spoken with Irving about a potential return to the Nets and to competitive action. It's unclear when Irving might play in his first game, but it seems that he isn't all that close to returning to the lineup:
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