Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving took to Instagram Live on Wednesday night to break his silence and ramble about his COVID-19 vaccination beliefs. While Irving has been met with plenty of warranted criticism for his rather incoherent beliefs, he does have his supporters as well who like him for sticking to his guns and exercising his right to choose on getting vaccinated rather than giving in to mandates, which have cost some people their jobs.

One of those people is former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate JR Smith:

JR Smith and Kyrie Irving helped bring the Cleveland Cavaliers their first-ever NBA title in 2016, and they went to four straight NBA Finals together overall with LeBron James. Given this and the fact that many NBA players have been sticking together with the line about “personal choice” when it comes to getting vaccinated, even with such a high vaccination rate around the league, it's not a huge surprise to see this type of response. Smith also might just like Irving trying to stick it to the people in power by not adhering to mandates.

That doesn't make it any less disappointing, though. The “personal choice” angle doesn't really fly when it comes to public health in the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in the United States alone and is still ongoing. While individual freedom is important, there are times where it's necessary to do something to help the common good. The vaccine is free and pretty darn safe and effective, so getting it shouldn't really be much of an issue at this point.

But, as of right now, Kyrie Irving seems to be pretty steadfast in not getting vaccinated. That means not playing for the Nets for the foreseeable future. Perhaps he'll change his mind at some point, but right now he seems to be holding strong.