America is going “back to normal.” Again.
This might sound like good news for Brooklyn Nets fans who have been anxiously awaiting an unvaccinated Kyrie Irving’s return to the hardwood, except there’s a catch.
(Nothing’s been simple in the last three years; you should be used to this by now.)
The private sector mandate still restricts Irving from playing in home games. So if fans want to see him in Barclays Center, they’ll have to look to find him among the other spectators.
Mayor Adams has earned a reputation as a man unbridled by the rules of polite company. He’s already made a few “did he really just say that???” comments since getting elected last year (many of them were about covid.)
"You know, you can be so used to getting the L's that you just wake up every day and hope you're getting the L," Adams said at the tail end of a January news conference, when the country was still averaging over 2,000 covid deaths per day. "No, New York — Eric is your mayor. We're getting W's now. We're gonna win!"
So it’s no surprise that Adams is looking to make some changes and end the mandates. For his part, Adams has said that he wants to find a way to get Irving on the court but, he noted, “I can't have my city closed down again. It would send the wrong message just to have an exception for one player when we're telling countless number of New York City employees, 'If you don't follow the rules, you won't be able to be employed.'"
It seems, at least, that Irving is understanding. He responded to Adams’ comments this week saying, “Shoutout Eric Adams, man. It's not an easy job to be the mayor of New York City. And with COVID looming, the vaccination mandates, everything going on in our world, with this war in the Ukraine, and everybody feeling it across America, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now trying to delegate whether or not one basketball player can come and play at home. I appreciate his comments and his stance. He knows where I stand. But, it's just the reality that it's been difficult on a lot of us in New York City and across the world. So, I know he's feeling it and I'm just grateful that he's on my side, as well as the commissioner [of the NBA]."
Whether he’ll play at home remains to be seen. For now, it seems Irving is content to play the waiting game while getting playing time on road. With any luck, “back to normal” may actually stick this time… unfortunately or Irving, “normal” might have a whole new set of rules.
