The Brooklyn Nets announced on Tuesday that Kyrie Irving would not practice or play with the team until he was eligible to be a full participant. Irving is not eligible to play in Nets home games because he is not vaccinated and local ordinances prohibit him from participating. The Nets practice facility was recently determined to be a private facility, so Irving would have been allowed to practice, but would only have been able to play in away games.
The Nets issued a detailed statement on the matter:
Brooklyn Nets full statement on Kyrie Irving’s situation. pic.twitter.com/U4TsrLg1mU
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 12, 2021
Nets GM Sean Marks also held a press conference on the matter, and stated that the final decision was made by himself and Nets owner Joseph Tsai. It had previously been reported that Marks and Tsai would discuss the matter with Kevin Durant and James Harden, but Marks did not put any responsibility on them.
It seems to me that the Nets have handled a difficult situation extremely well. They’ve recognized Irving’s personal choice and that they respect it, while still being clear that the impacts of his choice led to their decision. They haven’t thrown Irving under the bus, and said they’d welcome him back, but still made it clear that he won’t be back unless circumstances change. I was very impressed both by the Nets decision, and how they’ve handled the communication.
Kyrie fucked around and now he’s finding out.
Good.
Yup. Seems pretty obvious to me that if you work for a private company that does random drug testing and enforces performance enhancing drugs has a right to know if their employees are vaccinated or not, not to mention the city mandates. Kyrie has no ground to stand on…unless it’s a flat earth.
No such requirement in Sacramento!
Just sayin’ …
For now, at least. And I don’t think Sac wants the reputation of “slightly more friendly to Covid deniers than SF, LA and NYC” magnified by a Kyrie trade anyway— presuming he didn’t retire immediately upon such a trade.
It also won’t surprise me one bit that if/when we get another Covid surge this winter we see more cities, including Sacramento, placing similar vaccination requirements like SF, LA and NYC.
I’ve got a bad feeling about late fall/winter given the overwhelming majority of people got Pfizer (myself included) which now seems to have a noticeable drop after six months. Combine that with holiday travel and whatever variant pops up next after Delta from circulating through so many unvaxxed people, I’m not feeling too optimistic.
I’m wondering how long it will be before the general population will be okay’d to get booster shots, especially since you just know everyone’s going to be gathering for the holidays this year after not having it last year.
My cousins’s husband actually got COVID over the summer, and based off his personality, it’s safe to say he will probably not get vaccinated. There’s a chance both of them may not be at Thanksgiving or Christmas since they actually have a bad relationship with her parents (my aunt and uncle), but if he does come I think I actually may decline to gather with my extended family and just stick with my immediate family who I all know are vaxxed up.
Go get your booster. I did. They don’t even ask you a question. They just check a box. You can say you work at a job that puts you in contact with people or you need one for health reasons. They don’t ask. I think they want as many people to get shots as want them.
I’ll look into it. I technically won’t be eligible until later this month anyway since I haven’t reached my six month mark from my second Pfizer shot just yet, but yeah, I’m just not sure how long the wait will be, and if there are available shots I’d like to get one if possible.
I’d try to schedule an appt now. You’ll get one.
Thanks for the info. I’ll probably make an appointment soon.
Yeah, I’m done guessing what the next phase of the pandemic has in store, but I hope Covid’s impact on the healthcare system’s capacity are diminished with a combination of vaccinations and natural immunity. Even with waning immunity effectiveness, fingers crossed, we have a cache of immunity built up across populations. But again, not saying anything new here, but vaccines have served a role in helping us navigate the pandemic and if you haven’t been vaccinated please consider it to protect yourself, but more importantly at-risk members of your network of family, friends and co-workers.
Both mRNA vaccines had a drop in effectiveness measured as antibody response, after about 6 months. Pfizer dropped a bit more. The solution lies in the booster to “boost” immunity. That’s not unexpected. The original mRNA vaccine was crafted against the spike protein on the surface of the virus. Delta is a mutation/variant that changed the shape of that protein. Hence, the antibodies created by the original vaccine are not perfect.
Excellent explainer, thank you.
“Slightly more friendly to domestic abusers” doesn’t seem to have concerned the team a bit, so I doubt the other thing would matter either.
Good point, though I was referring to the city and its impetus to ban the unvaxxed from indoor stadiums, as opposed to the team.
He’s not remotely good enough to be this big of a pain in the ass.
No one is.
I feel if Kyrie were to retire, it would actually help the Nets. They are just as good without him and his distractions, plus it would save them $35M in salary and double that in tax.
It might help the bottom line, but they’re still capped out and lacking draft picks forever. And if Irving can ever pull his head out of his ass, he’ll remain one of those rare superstars who can beat just about everyone single-handedly on a good day. The Nets are taking a risk with this stance, and I applaud them for that.
His move to Boston then New York was his mistake. Should have stayed in Cleveland without any real media coverage. He managed to be a jack ass there and draw attention to himself but his games are not working out so well in places that are not afraid to call him out.
He always been a jack ass. Glad he put the spot light on himself.
First off, good on the Nets for not rewarding selfish lunacy.
Second, you have to wonder if this could change future trade calculus. Trading three 1st round picks and four 1st round pick swaps makes sense for the likely championship team of Durant, Harden, and Irving; not sure if it makes sense for the capped out championship contender of Durant and Harden. Also, presuming Leonard’s injury knocks him out for the year, this is the second time in the last year where a ton-of-picks for a superstar trade has resulted in a murky future for the superstar-receiving team. Not saying that it kills these types of trades; the Lakers Davis trade and the Bucks Holliday trade both netted at least one championship. I just wonder if—especially in the worst case scenario where Irving retires— this makes one-piece-away teams a bit more cautious where a mercurial or injury-prone star is involved.
Third, I wonder if this could have any effect on superstars demanding the chance to play with those they perceive as their peers. Not saying that a Durant-D’Lo-Levert or even a Durant-Harden-D’Lo team is a guaranteed winner, but Durant requested this situation and ended up with a potential mess. It probably won’t matter much— most stars aren’t Irving-level loonies— but I am curious if Durant has regrets now.
Durant’s probably pissed. He goes to Brooklyn specifically to play with Kyrie and Kyrie decides he won’t play.
Basically got basketball catfished by his supposed best friend.
Oh, absolutely. But while few could see the Covid pandemic coming, you could definitely see another Irving situation coming up after the flat earth crap and the Celtics fiasco. You can love your best friends and still understand that some are people with whom you should never go into business. Durant got into a business partnership with “that friend” and now he might pay the consequences.
Cavs fans tried to warn Boston and Boston said they had the system and support to handle it.
Cavs fans and Celtics fans warned Brooklyn and Brooklyn said they had the system and support to handle it.
At this point, Kyrie is the Kanye of sports.
My Celtics fan friend LOATHES Kyrie.
So we’ve got that in common.
Definitely the Kanye of sports. I have to wonder if some of his endorsement deals are going to suffer if this continues. I’d imagine some of those contracts are only valid if he continues to play basketball.
He could endorse flatwound bass strings. ..I dunno I got nothin’
I don’t get it! Are they flat, or are they wound?
That would make a nice slogan!
Signed in for the sole purpose of Thumbs Upping this post. As likely the only bass player on the board, this made me lol and I applaud you, sir.
Nice, Jerzig!
Me, too! Hi five!
Haha! Yes! Fellow punching bags of the music world!
Probably a few bass players on this board. Didn’t Wayman Tisdale play bass as well as play for the Kings?
Yes, Wayman for sure!
Yeah! And Waymon was a fellow lefty, too!
Not the only one!
We need to form a band!
All bass.
Naah, you’re not the only one. I play upright, using Thomastik Spirocores. I have a Fender J-bass and use half wounds.
Nike has been quiet so far, but they’ve got their own issues.
Love the Kanye of sports reference….so spot on!
Yes, and Durant is a big part of what’s fucked about Nets Book coming out about how Durant, Kyrie, Harden all demanded-took power over everything Nets. Lead by Kd. Who they sign/trade-who plays etc etc. Who coaches and their power. Why Dantoni left-book claims.
The inmates running the asylum. Good to see GM and owner finally took over in this.
Good for the Nets ! It is still a team game that requires players play !
I mean, even tennis requires the players to play.
Kevin Love would be a zero in tennis.
LaMelo would be the Ball.
18 former NBA players, including Glen Davis, Sebastian Telfair, and Tony Allen would be the racket.
ZeBo would be the high bounce.
Does that mean Griffin is the lob?
Luke Walton would be the unwanted grunting.
Very nice!
It’s not his fault.
With all of the time off, when he finally does play again he’s going to be flat.
This sudden reversal by Nets management leads me to believe a player or two or three went to management and stated how uncomfortable they would be even practicing with an unvaccinated teammate.
Apparently, the full meeting was Tsai, Marks, Durant, and Harden, and last season the reason the Nets went all in for Harden was the owner wanted insurance in case Kyrie started causing issues.
These vaccines work in preventing COVID. This is a new and viscous virus so it has taken a shot + shot + booster to get full immunity benefit. All those millions of vaccinations and no adverse ( death) reactions and a few side effects. Remarkably safe. The technology and science has been in the works for over a decade- mRNA was poised to be used as an anti-cancer vaccine but production shifted.
The current infections, hospitalizations and deaths are primarily within the un-vaccinated groups.
People/the public–like me- want to protect others and others to protect me. Logical. Businesses want customers and want to reduce the fear of workers getting sick or spreading disease, so there are requirements to be vaccinated. This makes sense. Vaccines are not forced on people- we get a choice: to attend events, go inside or work we need to be protected and to protect others. For those who choose not follow social protections, there is a choice: don’t attend, don’t work, don’t go inside.
Kyrie made a choice. From a clinical/medical perspective, this choice is not well informed, not safe for the rest of us and there are consequences. This is not “unfair”, this is not forcing me as Wiggins said. This is common sense, backed by data and science.
I applaud the NBA, NYC and the Nets. Honestly I would like to see more stadium requirements. This is about safety for all of us, not some vague sense of my very own personal “freedom” that is potentially harmful to others. We have stop signs, red lights, speed limits, required isolation of TB carriers etc. The concept is not new.
On to Basketball: Simmonds may report. I suspect that on his part it is a money thing and for the 76er’s this is a showcase opportunity.
It is hard to see a long term relationship there.
Yep. Not only do the vaccines protect yourself by significantly decreasing your chances of getting sick or hospitalized (or dying), they provide protection to those around you that you interact with too. Literally two benefits in one. Not to mention being able to more safely get back to the things we all used to do. We are extremely fortunate that they were able to provide multiple vaccines that are so effective.
As someone more artful with words than myself said, the freedom to swing your arms wildly ends the second your hand meets my face.
Freedom doesn’t have a god damned thing to do with freedom from consequences.
“–NOT RIGHT NOW…I’M ALREADY DOING MY OWN RESEARCH, MAN.”
(subscribes and smashes the like button)
He reportedly stated that he’s not an anti-vaxxer but is doing this to be a voice for the voiceless 😒.
Voiceless? IMO, the knuckleheads who deny science seem to be the loudest voices in the room.
Gotta love it. Infringe on rights yet say it’s not forced. Gotcha!
You would think that being older and more at risk, Kyrie would want to take every precaution.
Kyrie: “I got old man strength. It helps against Covid. Look it up!”
Is that ElRon in his prime?
ElRon’s prime:
Kyrie, it’s easy to remove the Microchip implant
Hopefully he’s not getting paid to do nothing.
I wonder if the Nets being on the hook for $60+ million in luxury tax for a contract that would be at best half fulfilled played a part in the decision.
I have no choice but to take Kyrie for his word.
But for the last three seasons (2 years) he always has a reason not to play basketball. He’s taking no stand here, he wants another excused absence.
https://twitter.com/jemelehill/status/1448075977666486282?s=21
https://twitter.com/VanLathan/status/1448067764023930881
And aside from all of that, we see once again that Kap was right.
I hope he stays true to himself and his beliefs, and not give in. There is some value to that these days. I think he would be fine with retiring, as he seems to have other interests outside of basketball that would probably help other people more. He does a lot of charity and other work with the wealth he has amassed.
His main belief is to make tens of millions per year to play basketball part time and be a team distraction ! That has come to and end and new beliefs will soon emerge !
Is it?
This thread is lunacy. Kyrie is a really weird dude but good on him for standing up for what he believes in. He has basically a zero percent chance of dying, along with every other player in the league and is being mandated to take a vaccine that does not stop you from spreading the virus anyway.
If you are vaccinated, you are protected from the worst effects of the virus. There’s no reason whatsoever in worrying about what the unvaccinated are doing.
It’s like most of you have been programmed by the government and media to obey their authoritarian orders and do their propaganda bidding for them. Still pretending as if the unvaccinated are a threat to the vaccinated? If that was even remotely true, there would be no point in getting vaccinated in the first place. You are not protecting your vaccinated loved ones by getting vaccinated and you are not putting them in danger if they are vaccinated and you are not. Try reading about what’s going on instead of getting your blatantly propagandized information from Fauci and the mainstream media.
Basically you are wrong about everything.
Of course I am if you are inundated with government and media propaganda.
It’s a lot easier to fool people in the first place than it is to make them realized they’ve been fooled.
The death statistics for people Kyrie’s age are there on any site. Now couple that with people his age range being in elite shape and the minuscule percentage goes down even further.
Please explain to me how a vaccine that keeps you from being hospitalized all the sudden doesn’t work if you’re around an unvaccinated person. Before you go parroting your favorite propaganda source that tells you that the virus wouldn’t mutate if it weren’t for the unvaccinated, maybe you should go look at the current efficacy rates of the vaccines. Not what they claimed they were 6 months ago. Then take that percentage of people that are vaccinated and still spreading the virus and calculate it out to the worlds population. Then tell me how a virus won’t mutate despite the fact that hundreds of millions of vaccinated people would still be spreading it, even if we had a 100% vaccination rate.
It’s a virus, not a health diagnoses machine. Being healthier helps your body RECOVER from the attacking virus, it doesn’t make anyone naturally immune. Are you suggesting the pandemic is solved with exercise and vitamins? No, you are conflating/misunderstanding two separate systems of the human body.
Studies on the flu suggest the severity of the case depend on the expose amount, body clock time and body’s existing immunity to the virus. Since no one can control exposure amount nor the time they are exposed the last factor becomes important because you can take a vaccine to boost your immune defense.
I never said it made anyone naturally immune. Athletic people under the age of 40 are not dying from this virus. There is no statistic out there that supports younger healthy people dying. The virus affects the overweight, elderly and people with other underlying health conditions.
Kyrie is vegan and in excellent shape. Both of those greatly contribute to his chances of not having even moderate to severe symptoms of Covid. Something like 78% of severe symptoms of Covid were present in obese people, especially those with co-morbidity. He can make his choices, which I applaud. If he wants to not play in the NBA until the mandates are lifted, then more power to him.
Regarding severe symptoms, the majority of those people had FOUR co-morbidities.
I am in no way a medical professional, but how do you not see that being infected with a transmissible disease, may result in transmitting that disease?
Vaccines are not close to 100% effective, so there is still a risk for the vaccinated. Also, the longer a virus is able to hang around and propagate, the more mutations will occur which may result in the vaccine no longer working. The Delta variant is a prime example.
I would have to guess your news intake and “reading” comes from a very limited number of sources that have been tailored to your political preference.
If you actually believed in your arguments, then what does it matter if someone is vaccinated or not? I mean, why do you care enough to be so exasperated and distraught to post misinformation that can actually cause harm to people. It’s almost like you have been programmed to respond in this manner.
Are you under the belief that vaccinated people aren’t spreading the virus or spreading it at a very low percentage? They still spread it at a high percentage, they just don’t get hospitalized for it. The vaccine does not stop you from contracting or spreading the virus. It merely keeps the symptoms to a safe level for most people.
This virus will never stop mutating because it will never be eradicated. It’s the flu, albeit a deadlier version for some people. It’s going to mutate whether we’re all vaccinated or not but like most viruses, it’ll mutate to become weaker because it’s not in a viruses best interest to kill its host.
I’m not posting misinformation just because it doesn’t jive with the lies Fauci and the media have told you. I also don’t care if someone is vaccinated or not. I care if they try to force others to medicate themselves unnecessarily through lies and coercion.
I see you are the real hero of your story! Out “protecting” people from the lies! <Sarcasm>
I think I am done with this comment thread based on how troll-like your responses are to me and others. Have fun promoting and spreading misinformation that can kill people, while trying to quiet the people trying to save lives. How noble you.
No one is a hero here. I’m not a hero and you aren’t a hero because you’re under the false pretense that you’re saving other people’s lives by being vaccinated. You’re only saving your own life. Unless you ignorantly believe that you no longer contract and spread the virus after you got vaccinated. That is patently false. You’ve only protected yourself from the effects of the virus. That does not protect other people.
This entire thing is a propaganda campaign that many people have bought into because they are falsely being told that they don’t continue to spread the virus due to their vaccination status. It’s just a way to further divide the country and not only is it immoral and false, but it is infringing on people’s freedoms. You think that random businesses are putting up these regulations through their own free will? This is all done through government coercion. They are using businesses and corporations as a conduit to pass down restrictive laws and mandates that make zero sense when you step out of the fog and look at what’s really happening.
It’s still early, but there is some evidence that the vaccine offers some protection against transmission.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y
I’m willing to believe that it can give you some protection but I refuse to believe that vaccinated people are safe to be around while unvaccinated people are a loaded gun. That is just Government fueled propaganda to divide us all. Are a few percentage points of effectiveness worth dehumanizing a large swath of the population?
The initial number was 95% and it goes down by the second. Remember when we were told masks weren’t effective? Two weeks to flatten the curve? Herd immunity? 70% vaccination? 900k kids in hospitals? ICUs in Oklahoma over ran by people taking horse paste? All false statements by the media and Government. How many lies are we willing to accept?
I hope you guys see this power grab by the Government because it is clear as day and they are pitting us against each other. If you go by the mantra of leaving people alone and not worrying about whether they’re vaxxed or not, you’ll be just as safe as if you let people enjoy their freedoms. You’re vaccinated so there’s almost nothing to worry about unless you let them instill fear in you.
Is this as big, or bigger in terms of a power grab by the government than seatbelt laws, public exposure laws, or drunk driving laws? Just trying to find a spot for it on the “evil power grab” spectrum.
Not to mention that suggesting there was a lab leak was “racist.” And now we can see government documents that show Fauci funded the research at the Wuhan lab and that it is pretty apparent there was a leak.
Oh, and of course there’s Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo and the other parasites at CNN reporting that Joe Rogan took horse dewormer. Sucking up to the establishment pays off.
Thanks for talking sense and truth. I come to this site to check out the Kings and unfortunately run into these threads by the religious cultists. Then when I run a counterargument, I’m told I’m injecting politics. So I tend not to say anything.
If me and PDX had a few drinks at a bar, I think we’d find we agree on 90 percent on policies.
But the far left has gone full on authoritarian. If you can’t call that shit out, then you are propping it up. Silence is violence.
The only reason I can see for all this hate of the unvaccinated is to feed your ego with the spiritual glory of the pure, righteous, cleansed soul of the fanatic.
We know Fauci cleared the funding for gain-of-function research in Wuhan. We know they did gain-of-function research in Wuhan. We know something bad happened in the Wuhan lab in Sept/Oct 2019. This has all been reported from government documents. It was even in the Wapo.
Why not hate on those fuckers?
I swear, reading this thread feels like I’m in a revivalist religious meeting. “I bear testimony that the vaccines have cleansed my soul and that Fauci is the one true sayer of truthiness.”
Seems to me that YOU are the one who cares whether someone is vaccinated or not. Not Minja.
Speaking of propaganda…
I respectfully request that the facilitators help to keep political views off of this Sacramento Kings basketball site. We all understand (hopefully)the dynamics of the pandemic and how it affects everyone. And people are entitled to their opinions. But folks have been so off topic lately, it makes one wish for another blog where the Kings are the focus. Anyone who visits this site understands that there are a few commentators who tend to dominate every discussion and folks are entitled to their views. But the negativity, insults, and name calling here are becoming toxic. Just food for thought. Go Kings!
LOL, oh Kyrie. Taking a stand for the voiceless unvaccinated who lost their jobs because of mandates. Well, for Kyrie that syringe is worth $33 million dollars this year and $186 million over the following 4 years. If only those people who lost their jobs were well off enough to turn down $219 million over what basically equates to a flu shot. America has so many veterans I’m surprised people are drawing the line at this shot. The smallpox shot is actually infectious and every military member who goes overseas gets it. I served 9 yrs and we had to snort the flu annually with a 99.9% chance of getting sick. Not to mention you would get punished severely for refusing to get any shot they say you need without a legitimate medical alibi. The media’s shift towards opinion/debate programs are what I blame the most personally. It’s become hard for some to differentiate an opinion from a fact. Skip Bayless’ constant slander of lebron in every possible topic and how it gets parroted by fans who dislike lebron is the perfect example of this. Skip is trying to win a debate. There is cherry-picked truth, opinion and there is embellishment of that opinion all in an attempt for you to side with him. He isn’t reporting news. But it is received that way by most.
Good on the Nets org. My respect for Kyrie is through the roof right now though. Stand for something or fall for anything. Good for him and his family.
I’m shocked that a flat-earther is also opposed to vaccines.
Science! We don’t need no stinking science!
Nets have been working this guy out though
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