Kyrie Irving Is Finally A Full-time Player Again

It was a five-month gamble that finally paid off for Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets. New York City vaccine mandates for the private sector made the unvaccinated Irving ineligible to suit up for home games in Brooklyn — until now.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams, facing pressure from major league baseball and the New York Yankees and Mets, has lifted the mandate, but only specifically for performers and athletes, just two days after saying it would still take some time. Turns out two days is all the time he needed.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has officially expanded the city's vaccine mandate exemption for athletes and performers.

Kyrie Irving can now play in home games.pic.twitter.com/ftMFIhGMd9
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) March 24, 2022

Using the "it will help boost our economy" fallback, athletes and performers who live in New York are now free to go to work, regardless of their vaccination status.

And with that, Kyrie is now finally a full-time player with the Nets. And just in time for the playoffs, which begin mid-April. Irving has been lighting it up lately (in the road games he was able to play), and following a 60-point game last week has his season average up to 27.7 PPG in 19 games played.

But for all the gloating the Nets and Kyrie might do over this reversal, it's best to keep in mind, as noted by The Washington Post's Michael Lee, that this would never have happened without the power of the almighty New York Yankees.

So what did we learn today boys & girls? It's easier to enforce rules when they don't affect the Yankees. Kyrie Irving gets his wish but the timing of New York changing its private sector vaccine mandate aligns less with science & more Aaron Judge smacking dingers out of the park
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) March 23, 2022