Nets will pay Kyrie Irving not to play road games, believe he’s still unhappy with decision to sit him

Kyrie Irving will miss Nets home games due to New York City’s vaccine mandate.

Irving will miss Nets home games and practices due to the team’s decision.

Nets general manager Sean Marks:

The only salary that he loses, Greg, is going to be for the home games. That’s it.

The hope is that we have Kyrie back. We’ll welcome back in open arms under a different set of circumstances.

Will there be pushback from Kyrie Irving and his camp? You know, I’m sure this is not a decision that they like. And Kyrie loves to play basketball, wants to be out there, wants to be participating with his teammates. But, again, this is a choice Kyrie that had, and he was well aware of that.

If he was vaccinated, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I think that’s probably pretty clear.

The players’ union might object to Irving having his pay docked for missing home games. But it was always going to be difficult for the Nets not to pay Irving for missed road games when it’s their choice. As much as Irving pressed Brooklyn into a predicament, he is still eligible for road games.

We’ll see how Irving reacts to all this, including Marks revealing the guard is unvaccinated. Though that had been reported, neither Irving nor the team had actually confirmed it before. The team said Irving wasn’t eligible to play due to the city’s mandate – hardly an effective smokescreen, but technically a concealment nonetheless. Irving had requested privacy.

Now, all these issues are being laid bare.