Kyrie Irving is sticking to his stance and it looks like it will be an expensive one.
The Brooklyn Nets superstar could lose nearly half a million dollars per game due to his conspiracy theory involving vaccines and why he continues to rail against getting it. NBA players who do not comply with local vaccination requirements will not be paid for the games that they miss due to their status, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said Wednesday.
The Nets play in an area in which local jurisdictions are requiring people to be fully vaccinated to be allowed indoors for entertainment. Irving did not attend Nets media day in person Monday due to New York City’s health and safety protocols. Irving would not comment on his specific vaccination status, saying, Monday via Zoom, that he “prefers to keep that stuff private.”
“Living in this public sphere, there’s a lot of questions about what’s going on in the world of Kyrie, and I would love to just keep that private and handle that the right way with my team and go forward with a plan,” Irving said.
That means Irving will miss at least 41 home games could lose as much as $428,000 per every single game he decides to sit out, considering he’s going to make around $34,122,650 next season.
According to Rolling Stone, Irving thinks the vaccine is a plot to link Black people to Satan.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
(Transcript via Rolling Stone)
“There are so many other players outside of him who are opting out, I would like to think they would make a way,” says Kyrie’s aunt, Tyki Irving, who runs the seven-time All-Star’s family foundation and is one of the few people in his regular circle of advisors. “It could be like every third game. So it still gives you a full season of being interactive and being on the court, but with the limitations that they’re, of course, oppressing upon you. There can be some sort of formula where the NBA and the players can come to some sort of agreement.”
“Irving, who serves as a vice president on the executive committee of the players’ union, recently started following and liking Instagram posts from a conspiracy theorist who claims that “secret societies” are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for “a plan of Satan.” This Moderna microchip misinformation campaign has spread across multiple NBA locker rooms and group chats, according to several of the dozen-plus current players, Hall-of-Famers, league executives, arena workers and virologists interviewed for this story over the past week.”
This throws a big monkey wrench in the Nets plan if they ultimately secure home-court advantage in the playoffs. So many questions that could be answered by getting the vaccine.
