Kyrie Irving Reacts to Making His NBA Season Debut After Being Allowed to Play in Nets Road Games
Kyrie Irving Returns to NBA Action: What Now for the Brooklyn Nets Star?
Kyrie Irving has finally played his first game of the NBA season, having missed the first few months due to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. His return, coming in Indiana where he can play (as opposed to New York state and other locations where he can’t currently do so), saw the 29-year-old pick up 22 points in an up and down display.
Clearly, Irving was rusty in his first game back, but he did help the Brooklyn Nets to a 129-121 win over the Indiana Pacers, and it’s clear that his team-mates and fans of the team are happy to see the seven-time NBA All-Star back in the fold.
The Nets are well on course to make it into the post-season, having put in a good run of form, and if you want to see just how Brooklyn sits in terms of the NBA futures betting, then you should visit this website to see just how well placed Steve Nash’s side are.
Brooklyn is at 25-13, and three games clear of the Philadelphia 76ers in the Atlantic Division, and only the Chicago Bulls are ahead of the Nets in the Eastern Conference, and in all honesty, Nash has managed just fine without Irving for the first half of the season but will no doubt be happy to have such an accomplished player available, albeit only for some games on the road.
Irving was happy to get back on the court and is no doubt keen to let his playing do the talking, having found himself something of a cause celebrity for the anti-vaxxer movement, a position he may or may not be happy about finding himself in.
Having missed the first 35 games of the season, clearly, the popular player was missed by his team-mates and Kevin Durant, who has had to do a lot of the heavy lifting in Irving’s absence, is certainly happy to see the player back;
“I told him how important he is, how much I want him to play — play every game,”
Durant went on to talk of his reluctance to tell his friend what to do in terms of vaccinations against the coronavirus;
“I’m not about to force somebody to get a vaccine like that’s not my thing. So he can play basketball? Nah, I’m not about to do that.”
“We’ve had conversations about wanting him to be a part of the team and conversations about him being here full-time, but that’s on his time,”
“Whatever decision he wants to make, he’s going to make. It’s on us to be professionals no matter what and do our jobs. All of us — from the owner down to the equipment manager — so whenever he is ready, he’ll be ready.”
Up until now, the Nets had dropped Irving from games on the road that he would have been eligible for but has recently reversed that stance in a bid to welcome him back into the squad.
