Kyrie Irving Officially Cleared for Nets Home Games Under Vaccine Mandate Exemption | Bleacher Report

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Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving
is now eligible to play in the team’s home games at Barclays
Center after New York City introduced an exemption for unvaccinated athletes and performers. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the decision Thursday.

Nets head coach Steve Nash previously
expressed excitement about the prospect of having one of his key
players available every night rather than only on the road.

“It’s great, obviously,” Nash
told reporters Feb. 23. “It would be great for us to have Kyrie
available for all our games. Having said that, it’s not really in our
control, so we’ll leave it up to the mayor [Eric Adams] and wait
patiently.”

Adams previously said he couldn’t make a one-off exception for the Brooklyn guard when other employees were following the rules:

Brooklyn initially announced in October
it planned to keep Irving sidelined until he was eligible to become a “full participant.” That stance changed in December as the team
dealt with injuries and absences related to a surge of COVID-19’s
Omicron variant.

“We believe that the addition of
Kyrie will not only make us a better team but allow us to more
optimally balance the physical demand on the entire roster,” the
Nets said in a Dec. 17 statement.

Irving has been effective despite
playing a sporadic schedule to this point of the 2021-22 season.
He’s averaged 25.1 points, 5.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 threes and
1.1 steals across 15 appearances.

The 29-year-old Duke product, who’s a
seven-time NBA All-Star, maintained throughout the process his choice
to remain unvaccinated was “not about being anti-vax” but rather
what he felt was the best decision for him on a personal level.

“This is my life,” Irving
said in October. “I get to do whatever I want with this, this is
one body that I get here. And you are telling me what to do with my
body. … This has everything to do with what is going on in our
world. And I am being grouped into something that is bigger than just
the game of basketball.”

Meanwhile, the Nets’ roster endured a
shake up ahead of the Feb. 10 trade deadline as James Harden was
dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of a blockbuster deal that
landed Ben Simmons in Brooklyn.

Now Irving, Simmons and Kevin Durant
will look to form a partnership that could bring the franchise its
first NBA championship. Simmons is yet to make his Brooklyn debut while he deals with a back injury. 

Having the 2011 first overall pick, who
won a title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, available on a
full-time basis will help in that quest.