New York City’s indoor Covid vaccine mandate kept Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from attending his team’s media day and it will also bar him from playing in home games this season, unless he quickly alters his anti-vax stance.

While 90 percent of NBA players have already been vaccinated against Covid, Irving has been actively engaging with absurd conspiracy theories surrounding the jab on social media. According to Rolling Stone, Irving recently began following and liking posts from a conspiracy theorist on Instagram, claiming the vaccine is part of a “plan of satan” to control the Black population.

Restricted from attending in person, Irving joined Nets Media Day via Zoom and was promptly asked about his vaccine status.

“Honestly I like to keep that stuff private. I’m a human being first,” Irving said. “I would love to just keep that private and handle it the right way with my team and go forward with the plan.”

Unfortunately, it’s not clear what handling it “the right way” means. While other members of the Nets, including superstars Kevin Durant and James Harden were in attendance, signaling they’ve received the jab, Irving’s absence puts his teammates in a difficult situation.

Not only will they be forced to answer questions about Irving’s vaccine status, the Nets will also have to play home games without their All-Star point guard. The league has not issued a vaccine mandate for its players, but that doesn’t excuse them from local city laws. And New York’s current indoor vaccine mandate will prevent Irving from entering the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for Nets games this season.

“I’m not able to be present there today,” Irving continued. “But that doesn’t mean that 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. If we could just keep that private…I would like to keep that private and just please respect that, my privacy.”

Earlier this month, Irving sent a tweet stating his “mask is off” and implored others to do the same. He later backpedaled from the tweet, claiming it had nothing to do with Covid. But now that the unvaccinated NBA star finds himself at the center of another Covid controversy, the “mask off” plea seems like much more than a metaphor.

Watch above via JER-Sports Journalist

The post Kyrie Irving Declines to Address Being Barred From Nets Home Games Over Anti-Vax Status: ‘Please Respect My Privacy’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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