Kyrie Irving, an American professional basketball  player for the Brooklyn Nets, has come under fire for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine. Irving was named Rookie of the year after being selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. A seven time All-Star and three-time member of the All NBA Team, he won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016. He won the most valuable player (MVP) award for the 2014 all star game. In the 2016 NBA finals Kyrie made the championship-winning three point shot to win the historic comeback over the Golden State Warriors. Outside of competing Kyrie is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is an active philanthropist to his Lakota people on the reservation. He has written, directed and acted in a number of advertisements as the role of “Uncle Drew” which became a Feature film in 2018.

The whole problem with this situation is Kyrie Irving won’t get a shot to play for his NBA team. Kyrie Irving won’t be able to play for the nets until he gets vaccinated. This is between Irving and New York City right now.  This is not a league issue but I believe it would be better for everyone if they were all vaccinated. Irving is the lone NBA player who can’t play right now. There is no way that he will get vaccinated. He said he’s staying grounded on his belief and won’t get vaccinated even if that means he’s not gonna get to play this year. He doesn’t believe in the vacation and he says his religion won’t let him get it. He says it’s a part of his region to not get it.  Because of this he has affected the whole team, their big three has become a big two. Now in the NBA if you don’t have a big three there is a low chance of winning in this league. So their chances of winning the championship this year has gone down a lot. Because he doesn’t wanna get the vaccine he’s affecting the whole team and not just himself. That’s selfish. He doesn’t have to get both shots of the vaccine. Just has to get one of the shots in the city of New York.

Adam Silver said “I would have preferred that ultimately that the players’ association agreed to mandatory vaccinations. “The officials union agreed to mandatory vaccinations, despite opposition from some of their members. But they agreed they believed they could have avoided a lot of these issues for the players.  I think that gets confused in some cases. It’s not the league’s decision for him not to play, the city of Brooklyn won’t let him play, it’s a city rule. So the only way he would be able to play is for him to go to a different team and might sneak his way to play. He has a big contract with the Nets right now so that can’t happen. He’s gonna wait for them to let him play again whenever that is. That might not be till the whole Covid-19 thing settles down a lot. He might cut out two or so more years of his time. He is not a young player though so he might be done with his time in this league just because he doesn’t want to take one shot.