Kevin Durant‘s knee injury, which is expected to keep him out four-to-six weeks, won’t change Kyrie Irving‘s mind about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, Adam Zagoria of Forbes.com writes.
“Kev’s gonna heal, Kev’s gonna be OK,” Irving said on Monday after the Nets lost in Cleveland. “And we’re going to have to deal with that as his teammates, but in terms of where I am with my life outside of this, I stay rooted in my decision and that’s just what it is.”
Irving will continue to be limited to road games unless he gets vaccinated. He suggests that will remain the case the rest of the way.
“I’ve made my decision and I’m standing by it…I stay rooted in what I believe in,” Irving said.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics will approach the trade deadline with the intent of building around their two best players, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link). He said Marcus Smart, Dennis Schröder and some young players are available and Boston would like to find another play-maker or wing player. “(The Celtics’ approach) is to build around Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, not to break those two up,” Wojnarowski said. “The hard part for Boston is what are the other tradeable assets they want to move on from? They don’t want to trade Robert Williams, their young center. That’s a player they see at the center of what they’re doing moving forward.”
- Kemba Walker missed his ninth straight game Monday due to a sore knee. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau doesn’t want him back until Walker is confident he can play on a regular basis. “The big thing regarding Kemba is I want him to feel as good as possible and a player like him in the situation he is in, I want him to trust where he is with his body,’ Thibodeau said. “When he’s ready, he’s ready. He’ll let us know. We trust him. What I don’t want [is] to get into a situation where it’s on-off, on-off.”
- Cam Reddish has yet to make his Knicks debut due to a sprained ankle, but the newly-acquired forward believes he can blossom in New York, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. “I feel like I can be a star,” Reddish said. “I feel like I could be a legit star. That’s what I’m working to be. It’s pretty simple.”
Cam, get your head out of the clouds because right now the Knicks just want you to fulfill your role, whatever that may be. Contribute to winning and stop putting up terrible +/- scores.
Kid needs to get his priorities straight. Only then would he ever have a chance of becoming a star.
Every young lottery pick should want to be a star.
Kyrie has been rewarded for being a bad teammate, so I guess that is what Nets culture is about, elites getting exceptions to team rules with no concern for the precedent that sets. Of course he is happy with his decision, he has had no accountability for his selfish decision.
There were no team rules to getting vaxed –
I’m not a Kyrie fan but it’s his right to chose just as it’s your right to chose to get the shot
They knew the {potential} baggage going in
When they signed him, there was no pandemic…
There is no team rule, yes. Nor is there a league rule. There is, however, a rule in the city of New York. Sports teams are not above that rule.
The continued conditioning to view one’s freedom, autonomy and self care as “selfish” is astonishing
Self-care: LMAO, one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read
How is not getting vaccinated to protect your body from an illness self-care?
Get past freedom and autonomy. Getting vaccinated is just the right thing to do. We have laws in our society that restrict freedom and autonomy for the greater good: drunk-driving laws for example. This is hardly different and nothing new. No society has absolute freedom.
The first thing that the Celtics ought to do is fire the coach! Find a good point guard!
Honestly I don’t think PG is a bigger need than just finding shooters. I’m pretty confident both Jays will be able to playmake if they were just surrounded with guys who can cash in.
Lol @ Kyrie thinking that he’s making some brave decision.
As a Nets’ fan since the days of Buck Williams and Mike Gminski, it’s very frustrating that Kyrie has decided that this mission of his is more important than the team or public health, but what makes it even harder to comprehend is that he said he personally wasn’t against a vaccine and that he’d be willing to take a “vegan” vaccine. There’s no purely vegan vaccine that doesn’t include some form of animal testing, but there was a Canadian vaccine that was close. It sounds like he’s determined to continue this crusade regardless of whether the vaccine he’s eying gets FDA approval.
It’s still a decision whether you agree with it or not. Move on
So we can’t criticize a boneheaded decision that’s gonna cost Irving tens of millions of dollars when no team wants to sign him this off-season and deal with his bulls**t?
A decision that affects others, so not really private.
There is a way to make non-vaxxing work, but nobody is doing it or even thinking about how, so that valiant attitude is wasted, and dangerous to those choosing to rely on vaccines for survival.
Kids gotta go to school… get put of their way… they will climb on the school bus at 7am if people let them… and then with their breaths, exchange diseases as well as natural fixing srategies… how have humans been surviving all this time in the face of mutating viruses and the like? With the newest Moderna shots?
Time’s ticking and there’s nothing to do about it except stay alive until by some accident, some fool medico finds a clear slide in the infected samples. That is the other long-term survival method we have evolved. How’s that working put for us (so far).
Don’t tell me about rights, tell me about getting kids out of the masks or isolation prisons we put them in. And we don’t even know how they will come out of these measures.
Okay back to BB if we’re done here
I could see someone like Rubio taking a 2 year deal with the Cs next year.
They could make a trade for Brandon Ingram. Idk what other wing really could be had at his level. Trot this out next year:
Time Lord
Tatum
Ingram
Brown
Rubio
I really like that lineup, would need depth tho.
Dibs on Rubio!
Reddish could be an all star if he plays for Warriors
Knicks no
If I’m a Knicks fan, this is not what I want to hear from Reddish. I have a feeling, if he isn’t going to take to coaching, playing a role, and giving it all on defense, he night not be long for New York.
He could be the next Jimmy Butler, if he grinds and makes his living defensively first, or he could simply be a solid role player on a decent team that never reaches his full potential. The choice is Reddish’s
I’m a Knicks fan, and hearing a young player say ‘I feel like I can be a star. That’s what I’m working to be’ is exactly what I want a 22 year old, former 10th overall pick to say. All he’s saying is that he wants to put in the work to become a star. Seems uncontroversial to me.
CR can say whatever he likes. That’s the benefit of being in a meritocracy. Nobody really cares. CR will get all the roles and minutes he earns, and none that he doesn’t. If he really believes there’s a star inside him awaiting a breakout, then he wouldn’t want it any other way. If its false bravado, reflecting the insecurity that often afflicts gifted under achievers, then that will be evident soon enough.
Earns being the operative word, on a Thibs team, and that means defensively earning minutes.
Yep. It’s why I love Thibs. He’s a real HC, not a glorified hall monitor.
I think Reddish has some natural malevolence is all… not a bad thing for a competitive athlete. Way too early to give up on him, although Barrett being there in NY could force the issue.
I think his problem was durability and trying to be a “wing” instead of a guard or forward like God or Naismith intended.
Watch the Hawks prioritize an on-court playmaking alternative to Trae to replace Reddish… a full 2G, like Reddish was never prioritized to be.
I can’t imagine we’ll see Kemba Walker again playing for the Knicks if that’s Thibodeau’s stance. This is a Brandon Roy situation at this point, and his knee is never going to let him play consistently ever again.
Maybe, but it’s not a Brandon Roy situation. Roy was never truly healthy, Walker had many very productive years, but got to an age where a lot of players start breaking down. He’s 32 in a couple of month’s time, and really only started break down last year.
As for Reddish, how can you not like a young kid that wants to be a star. He did not say he is a star, or close to it, he said he feels like he could be as he improves as a player. He has improved his outside shooting, has shown more versatility on defense, and is still only 22 years old. Do I believe he will be a star, no, but I do believe it is not out of the realm of possibility that he becomes a very valuable 3 and D guy in the NBA over the next few years. Keep in mind, that was how he was billed when he committed to Duke, it just takes some players longer to get to their potential.
Kyrie is to be admired for having the strength of his convictions & sticking with what he believes, very commendable!
How commendable will that be when he can’t get a good contract this summer? Teams don’t wanna deal with this guy and aren’t going to be giving him the money that he’d get if he just got the vaccine like a sane person.
Was he also commendable for believing the world is flat?
It would be MORE commendable then RichT
Not a Irving fan but it seems you value the almighty dollar over EVERYTHING
I don’t care to speculate Kyries motives or mind space but putting personal belief over the dollar is certainly commendable in todays day and age.
As someone who got vaxed early I still think we have to respect the rights of others who don’t. This isn’t Mob rule and this vaccine is certainly in early enough phases to have its share of doubters if they so chose. You need to respect that (from a 6 ft distance ) at least !
I certainly don’t care about Kyrie’s money, my point is that by doing this he’s costing himself millions in salary.
No, I don’t really respect the doubters when there are dozens of peer-reviewed academic and scientific studies that attest to how effective the vaccines are. They aren’t doubting it due to its earliness. It may be couched in that argument, but it’s overwhelmingly due to other principles which are often selfish, be they political, distrust of science, or just not wanting their gut feelings to be proved wrong.
None of those are as important as getting as many people vaccinated as possible so we can actually make this disease endemic. Plus, the unvaccinated aren’t just putting their own bodies at risk, they’re putting others at risk too.
If his fervent belief was racist or that people with disabilities should be exterminated, would that also be commendable? Not all beliefs are created equal.
If the Queen had balls she’d be a King
He should be admired for putting inocente lives at risk while being the worst team mate ever?
Kyrie is as lunatic as he is a bad team mate. Im just happy im not a Nets fan.
Delighted to see our Boston Celtics don’t want to trade TimeLord! He has a special talent that no one else has on the Celtics! As for Kyrie I’m glad he’s gone, not a real teammate.