Sports Time Radio

The NBA regular season starts next week. As you know I’m not the biggest fan of the NBA, but there are always some odd stories that deserve some attention and this whole issue with Kyrie Irving is one of them.

Irving is looked at as one of the top players in the NBA, but he’s had some injuries though his career and then last season he seemed to miss quite a few games for personal. Now it looks like he’ll be missing games because of a choice he’s making.

Irving has decided to not get vaccinated for Covid-19. Now there are some states that have instituted laws about unvaccinated people in areas where there are a large number of people gathered. New York is one of those states and Irving plays for the Brooklyn Nets who are located in New York.

What does that mean? Well right off the bat Irving would automatically miss the 41 home games the Nets will have this season. After that it would depend on what state the Nets would be playing in on if Irving would be available for that game or not.

In the end Irving would play very few games this season; so yesterday Nets general manager Sean Marks came out and said that Irving won’t play or practice for the Nets until he’s fully eligible to. While I’m sure this was a difficult decision for the Nets to make in the end this is the best choice because it will end the circus of if Irving will be able to play or not.

While I’d like to see everyone get vaccinated I fully support people being able to make their own choice, but in this case Irving refusing to not get vaccinated hurts other people who depend on him; his teammates. The Nets should be a contender for the NBA title and with Kevin Durant and James Harden ready to go they still might be, but if Irving was vaccinated and playing it would give the Nets an even better chance to win a title.

Now I’m not close enough to this situation to know, but if seems as though Irving is being selfish and I don’t believe he’s even mentioned his reason for not want to get vaccinated. I’m also a little surprised with how well his teammates seem to be taking this. I thought for sure that we’d get a couple of players come out and try to get him to change his mind through the media, but so far that hasn’t happened.

Irving is due to make just a little under $35 million dollars this season, but I don’t believe that the Nets will have to pay him if he misses games because of not being vaccinated. It wouldn’t be like he was injured and couldn’t play; he’d be missing games by choice.

Now there was a similar situation with Andrew Wiggins who plays for the Golden State Warriors. Wiggins asked the NBA for a medical exception for religious reason, but was turned down. As far as I know Irving hasn’t asked the NBA for any kind of an exception, but I don’t think he has grounds to ask for one. I doubt they’d grant him an exception because he didn’t want to get vaccinated. Now as it turned out Wiggins got vaccinated; so he’ll be able to play this season, but I have a feeling we won’t see Irving play in a game this season do to him being unvaccinated.

Now the Nets will still be a very formidable team and should still be one of the favorites to win the NBA title, but those odds would be better if they had Irving in uniform, but as of now that’s not going to happen.

Brooklyn opens it’s season on the road for the first two games this season. They play the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks to open their season On Tuesday October 19th. Then the Nets head to Philadelphia for a game on Friday October 22nd against the 76ers. Brooklyn’s first home game will be Sunday October 24th and they’ll host the Charlotte Hornets.

Now it’s your turn to tell me what you think will happen with Irving and the Nets as well. Do you see Irving actually getting the vaccination and coming back to play games? Or do you think he’ll sit out the entire season in protest? I’m also interested to know how you think the Nets will do this season. Do you see them winning the Eastern conference and an NBA title? Or do you think that they’ll fall short this season?

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You can also find me on Twitter; I’m @Burketime