By now you’ve probably heard that Kyrie Irving won’t play for the Brooklyn Nets unless he gets vaccinated.
According to a report by The Athletic, the 29-year-old was “upset that people are losing their job due to vaccine mandates” and further, “this is about a grander fight than the one on the court and Irving is challenging a perceived control of society and people’s livelihood.”
Irving chose to not get vaccinated.
ESPN’s Stephen Smith scolded Irving for refusing the vaccine and called his suspension “well-deserved.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the hell with you!” Smith said. “Sit him down, let him stay home, don’t pay him a dime.”
The criticism didn’t stop there.
NBA legend Charles Barkley, 58, questioned exactly what point some athletes were trying to make by avoiding the vaccine.
“For us to be selfish and not trying to help the world get back where we can take these stupid masks off and go out to dinner in a full restaurant, I just think it’s selfish,” said Barkley.
Last week the NBA said that players who don’t abide by regional inoculation laws, they can except a substantial financial loss.
“Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said in the statement.
Even NBA’s all-time scoring leader and former Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, shared his views with Rolling Stone on unvaccinated NBA players and how they should be banned for the season.
(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
“There is no room for players who are willing to risk the health and lives of their teammates, the staff and the fans simply because they are unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation or do the necessary research,” he said.
The past 48 hours has been one endless Twitter scroll about Kyrie Irving’s choice. It’s been relentless. If you type into Google “world wide vaccinations” the number one common question is: ‘Is Kyrie Irving vaccinated?’
The dialogue online has come in waves about how Irving is being selfish and is a bad team mate, and how he’s left Brooklyn hanging out on the line to dry. There’s also thoughts how he’s added himself to the small list of people who are dragging out this pandemic longer by not getting vaccinated. Fans are confused about his stance. His supporters are cheering him on.
The things we know about Kyrie Irving is that he doesn’t conform to popular beliefs or opinions. He can be anti-government. He believes in people’s rights. He can also not have the best interests of his team at heart.
As a philanthropist, he’s helped people in need. The New York Times reported that Irving purchased a home for George’s Floyd’s family, according to former NBA player Stephen Jackson; during the WNBA.’s season in the bubble, Irving started an initiative to give $1.5 million to players who did not participate and would not be paid. And then there’s his K.A.I. Family Foundation — partnered with City Harvest — that donates 250,000 meals in New York.
As a teammate he’s spent a lot of time appearing disinterested in basketball, and has lacked focus, even though he’s a supreme talent. If you remember last year, Irving missed a handful of games for reasons “unspecified” and when a video surfaced showing him at his sister’s birthday sans mask, it violated NBA health and safety protocols. And then there was the Zoom call he attended for a Manhattan candidate when his team mates were prepping for a match with Denver.
Irving once suggested the Earth was flat. He’s unorthodox. But remember the ring he won with LeBron for the Cavs? He’s an All-Star.
This is the contrasting narrative of Kyrie Irving.
Irving’s choice doesn’t make him a bad person. Actually, all of these things about him — empathic public crusader and shoddy team mate — can be the same guy. And it just so happens that he believes in not getting vaccinated just as much as the 3.76 billion (credit: NYT) around the world who believe in getting the COVID-19 jab. Not saying it makes sense to the large majority, but it makes sense to Irving.
A lot of people disagree with Irving’s choice — heck, his employer is first in line. Largely because doctors, politicians, scientists, have advised that the only way through this pandemic is the vaccine. Irving’s stance represents pausing the path forward, letting the virus linger longer.
The NBA union stated that 96 percent of the players are fully vaccinated — met with some hesitancy and no active lobbying to get it among the players. LeBron said that is a choice that everyone needs to make for themselves. For what it is worth though, most of Irving’s peers are on board with moving forward. Even the reluctant ones that were against the idea of vaccination, chose to do it for the greater good, and their career: I’m looking at you Andrew Wiggins. Yes, even those guys got the jab.
The New York Times reported that, when asked about whether Irving was vaccinated, Sean Marks, the Nets’ general manager said: “If he was vaccinated, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I think that’s probably pretty clear.”
The NBA is seen by many as being the best in the world at supporting its players and leading the charge on social issues like Black Lives Matter and mental health campaigns. So why would Irving, considered a public crusader and perhaps one of the NBA’s most outspoken players, not use his stature to fight for ending this pandemic rather than prolonging it?
It feels like a peculiar stance. When you think about it, the fight Irving is trying to take on is one the US government — at all levels — has been tackling since March, 2020 in all its complexities. This isn’t a job for Kyrie Irving, unless he plans to pay every unemployed American their wages. Maybe he will? None of it makes any sense but it makes sense to Irving.
Like it or not, If Irving decides to not get vaccinated for this season, and forfeits his position on the Nets roster for the 2021-22 season, his decision will leave a trail of tiny cuts that could run deep. And he needs to own it.
His choice might cripple the Nets in ways we don’t know yet. It definitely hurts their championship campaign. It hurts his teammates — James Harden, Kevin Durant and spare a thought for Patty Mills who just joined the team looking to get in on a deep playoff campaign. Irving’s choice could fracture all of these relationships. It might not. But this is what he needs to brace for.
Irving’s choice will give head coach Steve Nash and his coaching staff headaches that now, one of their blue chip players is suspended. The maddening part from their perspective: this matter has a quick solution.
“Without a doubt, losing a player of Kyrie’s calibre hurts,” Marks, told the public at a presser. “I’m not going to deny that. But at the end of the day, our focus, our coaches’ focus and our organization’s focus needs to be on those players that are going to be involved here and participating fully.”
From afar, it seems like he’s choosing the wrong side of the fight this time, but if there’s anything we’ve all learned during the pandemic, it’s that individuals have the right to make their own personal choices and this is Irving’s choice.
What basketball fans and critics are particularly raw and salty about is that Irving’s decision is deeply personal on an issue that is widely public, global and is about more than just the individual. It affects workplaces, hospitals, families and communities. It’s bigger than Irving.
We’re sure Irving is aware, but as someone who likes to make a public stand for the greater good, he will also have to live out the consequences for being the stand-alone, notable, NBA activist this time and will have to be accountable for making his choices personal as countries still grapple with the pandemic and the death toll of 4.8 million worldwide (credit: WHO) left in its wake.
If he decides to not play this year he’ll lose about $380,000 per game — he’s choosing that.
If he decides to not play and loses those relationships within the Nets organization and in the NBA — he’ll have to learn to live with that.
As much as Irving has a choice to deny the vaccine, and to make a stand, the Nets — and NBA — have every right to draw their own line in the sand too.
Guppy
Guest
Much like anti vaxxers, I hope you get the help you need. :thumbup:
The PTA has disbands
Guest
Dumb comment. Anti-vaxxers are intelligent enough to know that they are rejecting science. This "afraid" thing is rubbish. You're pandering to the weak, most likely because you are too weak to stand up and tell them off for what they are: selfish. I'm not telling them to take the shot. Society is already moving on without them. I don't need to help them. They don't want your help. You need to shun and ignore them. What a horrid personality you have to actually find a way to sympathise with them. What are scarcely functional brain you have to actually believe that they are scared.
Guppy
Guest
It's not that anti-vaxxers are stupid, or that they're corrupt. It's that they're afraid. Public health depends on anti-vaxxers confronting their greatest fears for the benefit of others. For people who don't share their fear, it's very easy and convenient to demand that anti-vaxxers just suck it up and take the shot. But we'll never get there by bullying them, by insulting and demeaning them and refusing to take the fact of their fear seriously.
mushi
Roar Guru
I can’t understand it at all from an athlete They knowingly accept risk of injury because it’s part of the game, they’d have a grocery list of supplements they consume, they have pain killing injections to play and routinely undergo surgery under anaesthetic. It’s just them wanting to seem like they stand for something.
Bell31
Roar Rookie
thanks for the summary of this thorny issue Justin. The key issues seem to be right to freedom of thought, but also not putting fellow players etc at risk by your decisions. However, the nagging thought in all of this is that ‘it’s kyrie’ and i find it difficult to trust and decipher his intentions – this is the guy who asked to leave LeBron, then claimed he’d learnt a lot from LeBron re leadership before proceeding to blow things up in Boston, before being part of a super team in Brooklyn, and then going off on ‘unexplained personal leave’ for a few weeks, before we even get to the latest saga — I believe he does a lot of good outside of basketball, but within the confines of basketball, it certainly seems like ‘Kyrie is about Kyrie’ and doesn;t appear to really take into account the organisations and players he works with – of course, this is the outside looking in…
Bell31
Roar Rookie
kyrie getting paid is more complicated than that – if the team is ‘choosing’ that he doesn’t play away games, they;ve probably had advice that they should still pay him in those circumstances, but don’t need to when it;s home games, where it;s purely his choice not to play
Bell31
Roar Rookie
lol, funny observation!
The PTA has disbanded
Guest
I didn't but I do now. Once you actually sit down and talk with a vaccine hesitant individual you come to the realisation that they are incredibly selfish individuals. Vaccine hesitancy is just another behaviour of people with a very, very deep rooted selfish make up. When you listen to them talk about other topics it's still just dripping with this "me, me, me, me, me" attitude. It's almost impossible for selfish people to be brought to reason by the community. They don't even believe fervently in the cause. You can tell this much. They will crack when it is in their selfish interests to do so. Most will snap when they realise that Qantas and Virgin aren't playing games with this and they won't be able to go interstate or overseas...unless they want to go for a LONG drive or are avid sailors. The private sector initatives working hand in hand with the government will get them to snap. They can rail against the government, but boycotting business for this nonsense cause will leave the individual worse off, not the company. They'll snap when it is in their selfish interests to do so. Someone, something will apply the right pressure point for each individual at the right time.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
NBL is leading the world, you dont get it chop off you go. NBA is allowing them to still earn money. they should be paying them zero every week till the date they get it. I think Irving is still getting paid for away games if he is not playing. Kareem is worried because he knows at his age the vaccine is less effective and guys like Irving are the type that could well finish him off.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
I genuinely don't understand vaccine hesitancy.
Rossi
Roar Rookie
Vaccine hesitancy I can understand, believing the Earth is flat is a level of stupidity in a class of its own
mushi
Roar Guru
Irving Lymphoma: A cancer of team chemistry that can affect team mates of any age. Typically this disease leads to a premature ending of the host team’s prospects whilst stunting the growth of current team mates and having generational implications for the team. This cancer is difficult to initially detect as it doesn’t start to become symptomatic and break down the home team’s defence or morale until it is wide spread. History has one recorded case where a season was saved by continual delivery of the, now unattainable, Prime LeBron. There was a program of experimental treatments started in 2020/21 using Durantula venom, but recent results suggest this may only be effective in slowing the growth.
JGK
Roar Guru
So the two most hated players in the NBA - Irving and Simmons - are both No 1 draft picks from Melbourne?
The PTA has disbanded
Guest
The day will come in Australia soon where some of the freedumb NRL players start piping up about their "rights" and "freedoms" to not behave like the rest of the community that they crave their attention, and draw their income from.
Benjamin Conkey
Editor
Agree with the commentators and former players. I posted on my own channels about how getting mandatory vaccines to do your job is nothing new and focused on the ANZACS having that very policy back in WW1 despite what 'freedumb' protesters say about them fighting for their rights not to be vaccinated. To be fair to Kyrie it doesn't sound like he has protested this decision (other than that Atlantic quote) as far as I can see. It's his choice not to get vaccinated. It's a personal choice but that choice comes with ramifications. While it's going to be a messy financial situation for the team it's the correct stance to be firm on this.