Nets bringing back Irving as part-time player for games outside New York

The Brooklyn Nets are in the process of bringing back Kyrie Irving as a part-time player for games outside of New York, though to this point the All-Star guard has been unwilling to satisfy the city’s vaccination mandates and become eligible to play home games.

Nets owner Joe Tsai, general manager Sean Marks, coach Steve Nash and key players were supportive of the idea of Irving returning and he will be able to start practising at the team facility, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, though he has to test negative for COVID-19 for five successive days before he can do any work with the team.

Upon returning, Irving will have to be tested every day as an unvaccinated player.

“After discussions with our coaches, players and staff, the organization has decided to have Kyrie Irving re-join the team for games and practices in which he is able to participate,” Marks said in a statement. “We arrived at this decision with the full support of our players and after careful consideration of our current circumstances, including players missing games due to injuries and health and safety protocols.”

Irving, in spite of his vaccination status, will be returning to an NBA — and Nets team — grappling with a surge in COVID-19 cases, driven at least in part by the new Omicron variant.

At least 45 players from at least 13 different teams are known to be in the league’s protocols as of the 5:30 p.m. ET official injury report.

The Nets have been significantly impacted by the latest surge, with seven players — including James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre’ Bembry, Bruce Brown, Jevon Carter, James Johnson and Paul Millsap — currently on the list.

This week, the first known case of an NBA player testing positive with the Omicron variant was discovered, though it has not been disclosed what team they play for.

Research on the variant, which was first identified in November in Botswana and South Africa, is still developing. However, since its initial discovery, the data so far show it is highly transmissible and less susceptible to vaccines than other variants of the coronavirus — allowing it to spread even among populations with high vaccination rates like the NBA, where at least 95 per cent of players are vaccinated.

Early Omicron cases have raised hopes that the variant might cause milder disease than other variants, though it is too soon in the research process to know definitively if that trend will continue.

Several studies so far have indicated that full vaccination plus a booster shot provides strong protection against infection from Omicron.

As recently as October, however, reports surfaced that Irving did not plan on receiving the vaccine, with the main reason being that he was “upset that people are losing their jobs due to vaccine mandates,” though he has not commented publicly on the matter since to affirm whether or not his stance has changed.

Municipal public health guidelines in New York bar unvaccinated individuals like Irving from entering certain public spaces, like arenas, rendering him unable to play in any of the team’s home games even after he returns.

The NBA and its players, in an effort to help stem the spread of the virus, recently agreed to enhanced health and safety protocols through the holiday season that include additional testing coming and a return to mask usage in many situations.

Nets bringing back Irving as part-time player for games outside New York
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal