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Could a mayoral victory for Eric Adams also be a huge win for the Nets and Kyrie Irving?
New York’s newly minted mayor-elect said Wednesday that he plans to revisit the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate once he takes office in January. It’s Irving’s refusal to adhere to that mandate that got him effectively banished.
“We need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
If revisiting them ends up being removing them, it sounds like the prodigal point guard could return.
“I might be speaking out of turn, but I think if the mandate changes, he’d be welcomed back for sure,” Brooklyn coach Steve Nash said before Wednesday’s game against visiting Atlanta, the finale of a season-long six-game homestand.
That echoes comments made by Nets owner Joe Tsai.
“I don’t know,” Tsai told ESPN when asked if Irving will play again. “Either he has to be vaccinated in order to come back if the New York mandate is still in place. And don’t ask me when they may or may not change the New York mandate.
“Again, if you ask the people that are making decisions at the city level, they are going to say we are going to rely on science, rely on what the health department tells us [in order to proceed].”
Now the man making those decisions is a former Brooklyn borough president and Nets fan. And Adams told The Post last month that he was “extremely optimistic” that Irving would suit up again for the Nets.
“I think this is going to work itself out,” Adams told The Post at the time. “I believe we’re going to find a way to have safety and to continue to keep our standards strong.
“I believe the NBA and Kyrie, they should work out how they are going to address that, and I think it’s going to be up to them … and the city to come down with a real agreement, and at this time I think the NBA and Kyrie would be able to come to an agreement.”
Brooklyn should be so lucky. After posting the best Offensive Rating in history last season behind the Big 3 of Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden, they have struggled to score without the persona non grata point guard.
The Nets entered Wednesday’s game ranked 22nd in Offensive Rating at 103.7.
“Yeah, we do miss Kyrie. We do,” Durant said recently. “He’s a part of our team. But for the most part we’ve been generating great shots, we’ve been getting into the paint: It’s just a matter of us knocking them down. I think it’ll come.”
But it’d come quicker if Irving gets back on the floor. And that seems more likely to happen with loosened city mandates than with him relenting and getting vaccinated.
“I have all the patience in the world with Kyrie,” Tsai told NetsDaily last month. “He’s on the roster, just not on the court.”
Now, this doesn’t mean Nets fans should circle the New Year’s Day game against the Clippers and expect to see Irving in the starting lineup.
It should be noted that Adams may have been even more pro-vaccine than outgoing mayor Bill de Blasio. And he added he has no intention of undercutting the sitting mayor, so any resolution may be deliberate.
“I hope the mayor — and I’m encouraging him to do that — to sit down with unions and come to a resolution. And if he doesn’t, if this is still going to January, I’m going to sit down with them and we’re going to get this resolved,” Adams said on CNN.
As it stands, Irving will lose a little more than half of his $35 million salary if he sits out the entire season, his pay for the home games for which he’s ineligible. And while they’re forced to play without him, the Nets will lose games.
Tuesday’s win by the Brooklyn borough president could be a huge victory for Brooklyn. It could just take a while to see it bear fruit.
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