Considering how much money Kyrie Irving makes in a season, the theory has popped up that he should just play in Brooklyn and pay whatever fine he is handed.
It’s not really that simple.
Because of New York City COVID-19 measures, Irving is not allowed to play in home games for the Nets because he is unvaccinated. There is a loophole of sorts that allows for unvaxxed visiting players to play in Brooklyn since they are employees of a business outside of New York City, but it has limited Irving to playing only in road games.
Irving could manage the fines. But on his podcast “Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective,” the ESPN NBA insider explained why the issue goes deeper than just paying fines.
“(The NBA has) said that they will yield to the governments. They want all their teams to yield to the local government law. They’re doing that for a reason, they’re doing that so they don’t have to make a decision on what the rules are in San Francisco or Los Angeles or Memphis or New York," Windhorst explained. "They want the local governments to decide, so when the local government decides what the rule is in Toronto, that’s the way the rule is going to be (in Toronto).
“So if the NBA allows Kyrie Irving to play and just take the fine, that is them going back on that support of the local government rules. Which means, if there is a local government rule someplace else in the country, then it means that team would just say well hell, the Nets didn’t have to follow it, we won’t follow it -- no matter what it is. So I just don’t think they can cross that line.”
This simplest solution to all of this is Irving simply getting vaccinated, but he’s made abundantly clear how resistant he is to that.
And given how the New York City mandates are about to impact the Yankees and Mets, Irving shouldn't expect any changes or concession to come his way anytime soon.
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