New York City to Unvaxxed NBA Star Kyrie Irving: You Can Come to the Arena, but You Can’t Play

A week after New York City supposedly lifted its vaccine mandate, unvaccinated basketball superstar Kyrie Irving is still not allowed to take the court for the Brooklyn Nets.

He’s allowed to be in the arena with thousands of other people, to join his teammates in the locker room, and to visit bars, restaurants, and clubs in the city. None of those activities require showing proof of vaccination anymore. But the city regards him as a COVID risk if he sets foot on the court, thanks to an ongoing mandate that all employees for private businesses must be vaccinated.

The rule doesn’t make much sense to Irving’s teammates.

“It’s ridiculous. I don’t understand it at all,” Nets star forward Kevin Durant told reporters Sunday after dropping 53 points against their crosstown rival, the New York Knicks. “It just didn’t make any sense. Like, there’s unvaxxed people in this building already. We got a guy who can come into the building—I guess, are there fearing our safety? I don’t get it.”

“It’s just stupid,” Durant added, before telling Mayor Eric Adams to “figure this out.”

Kevin Durant on Kyrie Irving not being able to play at home:

“We’re all confused. Pretty much everybody in the world is confused at this point. Early on in the season, people didn’t understand what was going on but now, it just looks stupid. Eric, you gotta figure this out.” pic.twitter.com/t8aBEBEZEA

— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) March 13, 2022

It’s hard to argue with that assessment.

There always were some big loopholes in New York City’s vaccine mandate. Irving wasn’t allowed to play when the Nets hosted the Sacramento Kings on February 14, but the Kings’ Justin Holliday, who is also unvaccinated, was allowed to play because the rules contained an exemption for visiting players. “I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who’s unvaccinated can play in Barclays but the home player can’t,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN at the tim