Report: NYC Mayor Expected to Lift COVID-19 Mandate Impacting Kyrie Irving, More
New York City mayor Eric Adams reportedly will reverse "the private-sector vaccine mandate specifically for performers and athletes" in New York City on Thursday, according to Sally Goldenberg of Politico.
That would mean that unvaccinated players like Kyrie Irving would once again be eligible to play home games in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, just in time for the upcoming NBA playoffs.
It would also mean that unvaccinated players on the New York Yankees and Mets would be eligible to play home games when the MLB season begins in April.
New York City's private-sector vaccine mandate has meant that arena workers and New York-based athletes and performers could not work if they were unvaccinated. However, visiting players are not required to be vaccinated, and the mandate requiring fans to be vaccinated ended on March 7.
Irving attended a Nets game at the Barclays Center as a fan, sitting courtside.
Kevin Durant publicly called out Adams after that contest:
Adams' response was simple—Irving could always just get the vaccine.
New York City's former COVID-19 senior adviser and former CDC employee Jay Varma criticized the reported rollback of the mandate for athletes and performers.
"I think the same rules on vaccination should apply uniformly to all," he said, per Goldenberg. "If there's a carveout for this group, why can't any other group then raise its hand and say, 'I deserve a carveout too.' Basically it sends a message that this is an arbitrary rule—that if you're rich enough and powerful enough and high profile enough, that you don’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else."
Irving initially remained away from the team entirely amidst the NYC mandate, though Brooklyn eventually brought him back for road games only.
The Nets (38-34) have gone 8-11 in the 19 games Irving has been eligible to play this season, though a number of those games came when Durant was out injured between mid-January and early March. In that stretch, Brooklyn went just 3-9 when Irving was available.
