Kyrie Irving was the only member of the Nets who did not show up in person to take part in media day interviews Monday at Barclays Center even though the team said he was scheduled to accompany them on an afternoon flight to San Diego for training camp, which begins Tuesday.
Irving did speak to reporters from his home via a Zoom session, but he deflected a bevy of questions about his COVID-19 vaccination status and whether he expects to comply with a New York City mandate that all people over the age of 12 must be vaccinated to enter a covered premises unless they have a medical or religious exemption. That means every home team player must be vaccinated to play games in New York.
When Irving was asked to address speculation about his vaccination status, he said, “I appreciate your question, but honestly, I like to keep that stuff private. I’m a human being first and obviously living in this public sphere, there’s just a lot of questions about what’s going on in the world of Kyrie and I just would love to just keep that private and handle it the right way with my team and go forward together with a plan.
“Obviously, I’m not able to be there today, but that doesn’t mean I’m putting any limits on the future of me being able to join the team. And I just want to keep it that way. So if we can keep that private, anybody that has any further questions about that, it will be the same response.”
Moments later, Irving was asked why he wouldn’t want to clear up speculation about his stance toward taking the vaccine. “Please respect my privacy,” Irving said. “Next question.”
Told that the fans are interested in his playing stance, Irving repeated himself. “Next question.”
Irving was nothing if not consistent. When an ESPN reporter asked directly if he expects to play home games in light of the New York City vaccine mandate, he said, “Again, I would like to keep all that private. Please just respect my privacy. All the kind of questions kind of leading me into what’s happening, just please, everything will be released at a due date once we get this cleared up. But as of right now, just please respect my privacy regarding anything about home games, what’s happening, vaccination. Please.”
Toward the end of his 11-minute interview, Irving said he expects to be present every day alongside his teammates in their quest to win an NBA title. “I know that the focus has to be at an all-time high, no distractions,” Irving said. “This is the last thing I wanted to create was more distractions, more hoopla, more drama around this.”
