Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving has been making headlines of late for his reluctance to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This hesitance was cause for some alarm during his recent trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota.
The Nets star was at the reservation to solidify his ties with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, in honor of his late mother who was born in Standing Rock. While there, Irving reportedly made a surprise detour to a nearby school at another Sioux reservation. The said visit was detailed in a recent report from Matt Sullivan on Kyrie Irving and the vocal minority of NBA stars against the vaccine.
“He’d just finished enrolling for his tribal ID when he pulled up to a schoolyard at another Sioux reservation, unannounced, for signatures and selfies — the kind that force a fan to lean in tight and pull down her mandated facemask.”
Inside the school, Irving met with two high-schoolers in a conference room for close talk about Covid and kicks, while twisting a cloth mask in his hands. He took photos in a basketball gym, where all student-athletes over 12 had been required to get vaccinated for the coronavirus to play sports, and where, on this Wednesday afternoon in late August, Irving was playing by his own rules.”
Images of Kyrie Irving's impromptu visit were posted on social media, with Irving clearly maskless while others around him kept theirs mostly on.
Concerns were raised given that the Nets guard was in blatant violation of public health protocols on government grounds. A mother of one of the children present then recalled the visit.
“Pretty much everyone had a mask on. Everyone but Kyrie, everywhere he went.”
“People seeing Kyrie on the rez,” the mother said of the Nets star, “even though we’re in a pandemic, I don’t think they stopped to be like, ‘Are you vaccinated?’ No, they’re like, ‘Damn, this is Kyrie!’ He’s one of our heroes.”
Kyrie Irving's reluctance to get vaccinated is just as much a hot topic on the court as it is off of it. The Brooklyn Nets would have to play home games without him, based on city policy, should he decide not to get the vaccine before the NBA season begins.
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