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Kyrie Irving might be able to play home games for the Nets again soon
Irving, who is unvaccinated, has not been able to play games in Brooklyn due to the vaccine mandate.
Kyrie Irving could play home games for the Nets again when New York City lifts its vaccine mandate.
New York City mayor Eric Adams was asked on Wednesday if the city plans to lift its vaccine restrictions like Boston and Philadelphia. Adams said he doesn’t plan to get ahead of the science, but he “can’t wait to get it done,” promising a “real transformation.”
Irving, who remains steadfastly unvaccinated, has been unable to play home games for the Nets this season.
“I will say that he’s been extremely locked in,” Nets coach Steve Nash said Wednesday after practice, according to ESPN. “Kyrie’s been great on the practice floor. He’s been great in film sessions. He’s been creating dialogue over aspects of our play. So I sense a real focus and urgency from him. And so if that’s any indication, I would say he is getting excited at the prospect of being allowed to play in all our games and hopefully in the short term.”
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Irving has played in 14 games this season, all on the road. The Nets are just 4-10 in those contests, but Irving is averaging 24.1 points with 45.2/36.8/92.5 percent shooting splits this season.
Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio implemented the mandate hoping to give people who wanted to be out in the city a little more security, but omicron cases have fallen in recent weeks.
Adams hinted the city will have updates in the near future.
“We’re going to get the city back up and operating and we’re going to be rolling out some things in the next day or so on how we’re going to carry that out,” he said.
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Nash said the Nets believe Irving will be able to play every game as soon as the city allows him to do so.
“It would be great for us to have Kyrie available for all our games,” Nash said. “Having said that, it’s not really in our control, so we’ll leave it up to the mayor and wait patiently.”
The Nets will be without Irving, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, Goran Dragic and Joe Harris when they take on the Celtics Thursday in their first game back from the All-Star Break. They’ve lost 12 out of their last 14 games and are eighth in the Eastern Conference.
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