After so much drama throughout the season, Kyrie Irving was finally allowed to be a full-time participant for the Brooklyn Nets after the vaccine mandate was lifted in the city of New York. It took an awfully long time, but in the end, you could say that it was Kyrie who emerged victorious in this battle.

Irving recently broke his silence about this whole ordeal. The Nets superstar revealed how much flack he received for choosing to remain unvaccinated:

“Everything was being thrown in my face in terms of what I should be doing,” Irving said, via Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “… I was being pinned up against something the world felt like I was doing wrong. It was like ‘Well, the majority says you should do this and why are you going against this? You know you’re losing out on millions? You know you’re giving up on your teammates.’ I heard everything. I was called so many different names.”

Despite the tremendous pressure he was placed under, Kyrie never budged. He stood firm on his beliefs and in spite of all the ramifications, he never changed his stance against the vaccine. I'm not saying that it was the right decision, but you have to give this man credit for standing up for what he believes in.

“I can really that say I stood firm on what I believed in, what I wanted to do with my body,” continued the Nets superstar. “That should be not just an American right, that should be a human right. And when you stand for something like that, in a society that we’re in where we have a lot more followers than we do leaders, you’re going to be forced into being seen as a black sheep that people can attack and can clickbait your name and say these things that don’t really describe who you are.

“So I can’t address everybody, but as we move forward in time, I know that I made the right decision for me.”

Looking at the basketball aspect, Irving really did a lot of damage for his team during the months that he wasn't allowed to play because of his vaccination status. They really needed him out there.

The good news for Kyrie is that he now has an opportunity to redeem himself not only to his team but to the rest of the world. You can be sure that this man will be playing with a bit of a chip on his shoulder in the playoffs.