Kyrie Irving is back practicing with the Nets as of Sunday, but he will not play in the Nets’ preseason game in Philadelphia on Monday, and the team has admitted they are planning for him to possibly miss some home games due to New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“He’s not going to travel to Philly. We just keep navigating that. But it was great to have him back on the floor, we’ll keep building him up and see how things go,” head coach Steve Nash said. “But we haven’t made any firm decisions on anything right now.”
It has been reported that Irving is not vaccinated, which seemed to be confirmed when he was not even at Barclays Center for Friday’s preseason game against Milwaukee. NYC regulations require Knicks and Nets players to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to play home games.
“I think we recognize he’s not playing home games (at the moment). So we’re going to have to for sure play without him this year,” Nash said. “So it just depends on when, where and how much.”
The Nets’ home opener is still two weeks away, as they will play two road games before coming home for an Oct. 24 date with the Celtics, leaving Irving time to comply with regulations. However, the team also holds out hope that things may change in some fashion – whether that be Irving getting vaccinated, or getting an exemption, or protocols changing – to avoid any lost time.
“I think right now we assume he's not going to be available for home games. Anything can change. Who's to say, the city's ordinance could change? Anything could change,” Nash said. “I think right now we're just trying to remain flexible, open-minded and figure it out as we go because information is coming in by the half-day here. We found out Friday he could come in the building. So things are shifting, no one's been through this before and we're just trying to figure it out as we go.”
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New York City ruled on Friday thatHSS Training Center, the Nets' practice facility, is considered a private office building, and not subject to the vaccine ordinance. That ruling allowed Irving to practice Sunday, but with him not traveling to Philly and the Nets’ preseason finale at home, Kyrie will finish the exhibition slate with zero minutes played.
Nash hopes that won’t an issue, if that’s the case.
“He worked out today, he got his shots, he lifted weights and took part in practice,” Nash said. "We’ll continue to build up his conditioning, and it was great to have him back on the floor.”
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Because of that, though, it is possible that the Nets could have Irving come off the bench to start the season, in part because of conditioning and in part to let the team build chemistry knowing he will be unavailable for home games at the outset.
“It’s possible, yeah. We’ll see. We haven’t really got there yet,” Nash said. “I think we’re still trying to process all of the possibilities. That might take us some time to see where his body is at. No one has ever done that before. I wouldn’t know what precedents there are and what the best way to do it is. We’re really trying to navigate it as we go.”
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