The Nets will have Kyrie Irving back in the fold on Wednesday night when they visit the Bulls, but then will once again have to say goodbye when Brooklyn returns for two games at home before reuniting on a four-game road trip.
Irving is only playing in road games due to his vaccination status, as New York City requires that individuals be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter indoor arenas. Therefore, Brooklyn initially made the decision to sit Irving entirely, but brought him bake in a part-time role after the team was decimated by injuries and COVID cases. The Nets, losers of five of their last seven and slipping down the Eastern Conference ranks, could use as much of their star point guard as possible, but he is limited to only games outside of New York and Toronto.
But what if Irving could play in all Nets games, even if the vaccine mandates didn't change? As Stefan Bondy of the Daily News points, out, Brooklyn could make it happen for a small fee if the team chose to.
As Bondy reported, former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's executive order says that the first infraction against The Key to NYC, or if an unvaccinated individual steps inside an indoor arena, is a warning. The second is a fine of $1,000, the third raises the penalty to $2,000, then every offense from the fourth time on repeats at $5,000 each. In the scheme of things, it would hardly be a speeding ticket for Nets ownership, and would represent a fraction of the nearly $400,000 Irving is losing each time he sits for a home game due to his refusal to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
To add it all up, Brooklyn has exactly 20 home games left this season. Irving's first three offenses would total up to $3,000 in fines, and every game after would be a $5,000 fine each time. That's a grand total of $88,000, pocket change for a franchise as lucrative as the Nets, especially when considering the extra revenue they would almost certainly pull in if Irving was playing inside the Barclays Center for the rest of the season. They could even come out on top of those fines and make more back as a result.
Of course, the blowback from purposefully incurring fines for an unvaccinated individual during a global pandemic would be a major reason why the Nets almost certainly decline to take this route, but it is interesting to learn just how easy it would be for Irving to take the court in Brooklyn. Of course, the easiest route would be for Irving to get vaccinated, but that still doesn't appear to be on the horizon, which could decimate the Nets' title hopes once Irving is ineligible for at least half of the team's playoff games during a seven-game series.
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