The National Basketball Association (NBA) is getting ready to start their regular season in just a couple of weeks and this year fans are anticipating getting back into arena’s and see their home team play! Recently, there has been some big controversy over one of the best players in the league, Kyrie Irving. He has not received the vaccine and doesn’t intend to in the near future, proposing some big decisions to the Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash.

The NBA itself doesn’t have any fines for those who choose not to get vaccinated, just stricter health and safety protocols including; socially distant lockers, requiring masks, testing almost every day, and limits on traveling to specific areas.

The Brooklyn Nets doesn’t have anything against Kyrie Irving himself, but the state of New York has specific mandates of requiring at least one vaccine to enter Barclay’s Arena. This would mean that Irving would only participate in away games, losing about half of his salary. Because of this, the Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks made the executive decision to not have Kyrie Irving practice with the squad until he can fully participate in every home game and be a full team player.

According to an article from CNN, Travis Caldwell talked to General Manager Sean Marks about Kyrie Irvings vaccination status and said “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,” Marks said.

On Wednesday, October 13th, the nets pulled Kyrie Irving’s 4-year $186 million extensions. At the rate that Irving is going, it’s not looking too good for him.

CNN Reporter Caldwell again quotes GM Mark by saying “It is imperative that we continue to build chemistry as a team and remain true to our long-established values of togetherness and sacrifice,” Marks said. “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,” he said.

With all of this going around Irving, it seems like nothing is going to change for the superstar PG soon.

“You think I really want to give up my dream to go after a championship?” Irving said on an Instagram live video on Wednesday. “Do you think I really just want to give up my job? You think I really just want to sit at home and not go after the things with my teammates that I’ve been able to grow with, to learn with?”

Rumors have been spreading about whether Irving is going to be traded, and if he was if he would retire or not. As of now, the Brooklyn Nets are open-minded about trading him to a different team in exchange for another big player.

Irving said he has no intentions to retire. “Don’t believe that I’m going to give up this game for a vaccine mandate or staying unvaccinated.”

Kyrie Irving and the Nets have a big season coming up and it only begs the question of if the nets don’t have Irving playing, will they still be the favorites to win the NBA championship? Only the future can tell.

The Brooklyn Nets’ first game is on October 19th against the defending NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/sport/kyrie-irving-vaccine-mandate-instagram-nba-spt/index.html