Prior to tipoff of the Brooklyn Nets' 132-120 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, fans were bombarded by a series of credible reports indicating that New York City Mayor Eric Adams was repealing private sector COVID-19 vaccine rules that barred unvaccinated players like Kyrie Irving from appearing in home games. The decision meant Kyrie would be able to play in all of the Nets' remaining games unless they're in Toronto.
After the loss to the Ja Morant-less Grizz, all of Steve Nash, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving refused to talk about hypotheticals, apparently resolving not to count any proverbial mandate chickens before they had hatched.
So Kyrie Irving, on his 30th bday, after dropping 43, opens his post game saying:
"'til anything is official [on local vaxx mandates] please don't ask me anything about that ya'll."The rest of the clip is him dodging questions about full-time status "hypotheticals." #NetsWorld pic.twitter.com/ck0Rif8uIi
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) March 24, 2022
How many times have those three looked forward to some type of “scary hours” dream or another only to see yet another setback? You can respect their position there do not want to jinx anything.
A full 24 hours after Adams made the excemption official, at shootaround down in Miami (Ben Simmons was even there), Irving declined to speak with media, but Kevin Durant wasn't feeling quite as reserved.
Per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News the two-time Finals MVP offered up this:
“It's no crying over spilled milk. But I'm not naïve to the fact that the Mets and Yankees have a lot of power in our city. I'm sure when they all helped and had conversations, they were able to push it over the top.”
*Watch NBA games LIVE with fuboTV (click for free trial)*
It's not lost on many basketball fans that this saga might well have continued through the NBA Playoffs if the local baseball teams hadn't suddenly thrown their hats in the ring. The Mets and Yankees have some unvaccinated athletes (an undisclosed number) and they clearly didn't want any type of stalemate like the Nets dealt with to ding their own massive home game revenue.
Remember these headlines from June? Fola Akinnibi wrote for Bloomberg: Mets Owner Steve Cohen Gives $1.5 Million for Eric Adams’s NYC Mayoral Bid.
Ahhh, makes sense. If only Nets owner Joe Tsai had predicted all of this.
Kevin Durant putting things into perspective:
"All of it's weird. COVID is weird. It just came out of nowhere."
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) March 25, 2022
On the most recent Nothing But Nets podcast, we talked at length about the weirdness of the entire situation. We have questions like whether or not it's fair that Irving, a wealthy performer, can work while the local working class folks he apparently took his stand for still don't have jobs, and more. We scrutinized Mayor Adams' claims that he wasn't pressured into this decision and just followed the science.
Co-host Greg Dennis even quipped, “Give Mayor Adams credit, he followed the science and it led him to Opening Day of baseball.”
*Much more on some very controversial subject matter that has even divided Nets fans here*
The Yankees and Mets bring in tons of revenue for the city. As the Mayor added Thursday when he made the decision and explained his rationale, “a small number of people have an outsized impact on our economy.”
It sounds like Durant, who recently called out Mayor “Eric,” feels a certain type of way that the Yanks and Mets carry so much more sway.
Kyrie Irving once said he can't wait to “break bread” with the Mayor once this is behind them. Perhaps KD won't be joining them.
Even so, Durant and the Nets are now ready to put this behind them:
KD said the group is just happy to have the Kyrie/vaccination talk behind them. He acknowledged how important it was to have the Yankees and Mets in NYC to help get the mandate rolled back so that Kyrie can play at Barclays.
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) March 25, 2022
The Nets will now focus on playing ball and trying to win a championship, all while hoping they get Simmons back soon.
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