Nets, prizing continuity and finally standing up to star Irving, say they won't let him play part-time (or practice), and will eat part of his salary

Another, for now definitive twist in the Kyrie Irving saga: though the Brooklyn Nets managed to get the city to allow their practice facility opened up for unvaccinated players--i.e., Irving--yesterday the team announced that, for the sake of team chemistry, they won't allow a part-time player.

That means the team will eat nearly half his $33 million salary, since he would be eligible to play outside of New York City and San Francisco, which have local mandates. It also opens up chatter about trading Irving, though the mercurial star might now be less welcome.

The decision was made by GM Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai, with players consulted. And, who knows, Irving could change his mind--or get traded, or retire. 

So, saturdation coverage from the New York Post, including Mike Vaccaro's Nets GM Sean Marks paying price for bringing Kyrie Irving on board, describing how the GM abandoned the team's slow-
build culture when superstars Irving and Kevin Durant decided to team up:

And look: it’s absurd to argue with what Marks decided to do when it became apparent Kevin Durant was interested in hanging his shingle at Barclays Center. Even with a bum Achilles, even with a year’s rehab ahead of him, Durant was one of the two greatest players on the planet. And he wanted Brooklyn, not Manhattan. He wanted the Nets, not the Knicks. 

But he wanted other things, too: he wanted a sidekick; that’s how Irving became a Net. He wanted a voice in how things would be in Brooklyn, and that’s how Atkinson became an ex-Net 62 games into the 2019-20 season. There aren’t a lot of athletes who merit such perks. Durant is one.

So the Crown Prince of Culture blew up the blueprint.

And coverage from the New York Daily News, including Stefan Bondy's The Nets have finally stood up to Kyrie Irving:

The Nets got what they deserved with Kyrie Irving, but like a pushover parent who reached a limit on disrespect, they finally took a stand. We’ll see if it’s too late to have an impact on Irving, who has been given so much rope by the Nets he could dock the Spanish Armada. 

Bondy added:

His anti-establishment counterculture persona falls on its head when you remember Irving’s feature film was based on a Pepsi commercial and his only apology recently was to Nike for criticizing a signature shoe design.

On Twitter

The Brooklyn Nets ratchet up the public-pressure campaign for Kyrie Irving to get vaccinated. First come the ESPN leaks. Now comes the statement: No shot, no basketball.

It’s on Kyrie now. pic.twitter.com/oGynOdsCx3

— Matt Sullivan (@sullduggery) October 12, 2021

Despite new 'not-anti-vax' hero narrative from his camp, Kyrie Irving has long distrusted mgmt telling him what to put in his body.

Felt forced into danger by Cavs (& LeBron) in '15. Ghosted on Nets in late '19/early '20 because he didn't buy their surgery advice.

From my book: https://t.co/c4eiUUbAH9 pic.twitter.com/ThSvuO2y51

— Matt Sullivan (@sullduggery) October 13, 2021

Kyrie has done many selfless acts in part to improve his community

Kyrie Irving’s decision to not get vaccinated in very selfish

2 things can be true

— Julian (@julianvannoy) October 12, 2021

Critical comments

In Sports Illustrated, Rohan Nadkarni wrote:

And even if Irving’s teammates would have welcomed him on a part-time status, would they have wanted to deal with this distraction for an entire season? Every nationally televised Nets game would have turned into a discussion about Kyrie. Players would get asked about his absence at nearly every home game. Any big loss at home would have turned into a “What if?” about Irving. Fans on the road would be relentless in their jeers. And the final few weeks of the season would become an absolute circus once people started asking Nets players if they would consider purposely losing games to avoid securing home court advantage.

As Newsday's Barbara Barker wrote:

After months of asking and then pleading with and then actually contemplating all kinds of difficult and energy-draining accommodations for Kyrie Irving, the Nets did the right thing. They decided to put their team ahead of the needs of an individual player. They correctly concluded no one, not even someone as talented as Irving, is worth going through the kind of roster calisthenics and daily distractions...

The Nets, noted Barker, are still championship contenders, with Kevin Durant, James Harden and a strong bench. Still, as Barker put it:

One has to wonder what Durant, who recently signed a four-year contract extension with the Nets, thinks about all this. The big reason that Durant came to the Nets is that he thought it would be cool to play with his friend Irving and Irving thought it would be cool to play for the Nets, the team he grew up cheering for.