Kyrie Irving is currently not allowed to enter Barclays Center but he can join his Brooklyn Nets teammates for practice. ESPN reports Irving is able to come into the practice facility because it is a “private office building.”
“It sounds like we may have Kyrie on the road with us, but I’m not sure he’ll be playing, since we haven’t seen him for a week, and obviously safety first,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “Not going to have a huge risk of injury, but a lot to be worked through. We’re just getting information at the same time you guys are, so we’ll see [what happens].”
“At least he can practice,” Kevin Durant said. “But we want him here for the whole thing. We want him for games, home games, practices, away games, shootarounds, all of it. So hopefully we can figure this thing out.”
Next week, the Nets open the season against the Milwaukee Bucks and in followed by a visit to Philadelphia. With it being a road game, Irving would be available to play. When the Nets begin a six-game homestand against the Charlotte Hornets, Irving would have to sit at home.
Irving’s aunt, Tyki, spoke with Rolling Stone and revealed that Kyrie has refused to receive the vaccine. The NBA would allow for certain players to be exempt from the rule if it was for religious reasons. Irving isn’t citing religion, instead, “moral-based” reasons.
“He is going to try to figure that out as it comes, because it’s not religious-based, it’s moral-based,” Tyki said. “You may have to sit on the sideline, you might not have to be in the arena during this. If it’s that freaking important to get a vaccine that, hell, it’s still not preventing the Covid then I’d rather them working it out that way than to say, ‘Hey, if you don’t get the vaccine, then you can’t be a part of the franchise that you f*ckin’ helped build.’”
