The Brooklyn Nets have reportedly not reached a decision on whether the team will accommodate Kyrie Irving as a part-time player this season if he does not get vaccinated, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Irving, as an unvaccinated player, would not be able to practice in Brooklyn or play in the Nets' 41 home games due to municipal public health guidelines which bar people who have not received the vaccine from entering spaces like arenas.
There had been optimism, according to Wojnarowski, that Irving would get vaccinated and fulfil these local mandates. But, with the team unaware of his ultimate intentions regarding the vaccine, that hope is waning and the Nets are now believed to be preparing for the possibility they will play without him for large stretches of the foreseeable future.
On Tuesday, after Irving missed practice in Brooklyn, Nets head coach Steve Nash said practices would not be relocated to accommodate Irving.
If Irving remains unvaccinated, there will be prolonged periods of the season during which he is unable to workout with the team. During a 26-day stretch between November and December, for example, the Nets are in Brooklyn for 20 of those days -- none of which Irving would be able to take part in team activities.
For each game that Irving misses due to being unvaccinated, the 29-year-old is slated to lose just over $380,000, in accordance with an agreement that was struck between the league and players' union for how to navigate this novel situation. Those losses could start as soon as Friday's pre-season home game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
If Irving were to miss all 41 Nets regular season home games, he would forfeit around $15.6 million of his $35.2 million contract.
Though 95 per cent of the league is believed to be vaccinated, Irving has been one of a vocal minority of players who have espoused a range of anti-vaccine sentiments.
Irving, who is also a vice president on the NBA Players' Association's executive committee, is believed to be one of the leading player voices against vaccine mandates in the NBA, despite the overwhelming evidence that vaccines reduce both the spread of the virus and the likelihood an individual will suffer severely adverse effects if they do contract COVID-19.
The NBA players' union has not yet agreed to a vaccine mandate and has, according to prior reporting from Wojnarowski, denied the league's proposals for one to be implemented. The referees' union, however, has agreed to one. In the WNBA, 99 per cent of players were fully vaccinated by June without a mandate going into effect.
When recently asked about his vaccination status during the Nets' media day, which he was unable to attend in person due to the vaccine protocols, Irving said on Instagram Live that he'd "like to keep that stuff private" and insisted "the last thing" he wanted to create was "more hoopla and more distractions."
