Joe Tsai Unsure When Kyrie Irving Will Return to Nets After Vaccination Decision
Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai hopes star point guard Kyrie Irving will get vaccinated and return to the team, but he said Friday he is uncertain when, or if, that will happen.
"I don't know," he told ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk when asked when Irving will play again. "Either he has to be vaccinated in order to come back if the New York mandate is still in place. And don't ask me when they may or may not change the New York mandate. Again, if you ask the people that are making decisions at the city level, they are going to say we are going to rely on science, rely on what the health department tells us [in order to proceed]."
Because of New York City's vaccine mandate—which requires its "home team" athletes and staff to be vaccinated to participate in competitions at indoor venues—Irving can't play home games, and Tsai said the Nets collectively made the decision for him to remain away from the team until he's vaccinated:
"Obviously Kyrie has his own belief so I respect that. But we have to make a team decision. This is not a decision about him. This is a decision about where we go as a team. And it is just not tenable for us to have a team with a player that comes in and out, no home games, only away games. What do you do in practice then?"
"This week we have a whole stretch of six home games, so we won't have Kyrie. So it became pretty clear to us. We are very much aligned among myself, [general manager] Sean [Marks], coaching staff that this has to be [the decision], especially since we're a team with pretty lofty aspirations. We don't see any other way of running this team."
That has put Irving's future with the Nets in question, however.
"I hope that Kyrie can be part of the team, part of Brooklyn long term," Tsai said. "But I am not going to get into the extension thing. I think we have an immediate question of whether he can play this season, and I hope he gets vaccinated as soon as possible."
Earlier in October, Irving said on Instagram Live that he was against the vaccine mandate but wasn't pro- or anti-vaccination.
"I chose to be unvaccinated, and that was my choice, and I would ask you all to just respect that choice," he said. "I am going to just continue to stay in shape, be ready to play, be ready to rock out with my teammates and just be part of this whole thing. This is not a political thing; this is not about the NBA, not about any organization. This is about my life and what I am choosing to do."
And this week, protestors wielding "Stand with Kyrie" signs and chanting "Let Kyrie play! Let Kyrie play!" gathered in front of the Barclays Center.
Tsai called those protestors "cavalier" and said they were using the situation to make a political statement.
"They're hijacking the issue, but it's dangerous because we have a life-and-death situation," he continued. "The fact is, if you are not vaccinated and you catch COVID, you have a much higher probability of getting very, very sick and end up in the ICU and possibly die. That's the consequence."
