As Irving sets record, and baseball stars also face vax mandate, more confusion--and hints from the mayor about a change

The plot thickens. As NetsDaily put it last night, Nets All-Time Classic: Kyrie Irving scores franchise-record 60 points to lead Nets over Magic, 150-108:

It was an all-time Nets classic Tuesday night in Orlando; a night Irving scored a franchise-record and career-high 60 points on an efficient 20-of-31 shooting from the field and 8-of-12 shooting from 3-Point range. His 60-point blockbuster also marked a career-high and ties Karl-Anthony Towns for the most points scored in a single game this season.
...The offensive dominance of Brooklyn since KD returned reached another level 

Meanwhile, as New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica wrote yesterday, Baseball has its own set of Kyrie Irvings on its hands now,:

Here is the situation right now with major league baseball in the city of New York: All the unvaccinated players on the Yankees and Mets just turned into Kyrie.
In fact, every one of them can stand up tomorrow and do a Spartacus turn: I am Kyrie Irving. And if the mandates here don’t change between now and Opening Day, they can go and sit down the way Kyrie sat down in Brooklyn on Sunday when the Nets played the Knicks, and get ready to only play road games.
This isn’t about principle, by the way. It’s about stubbornness, and it’s about ignorance.

Things might change 

Then again, as Steve Lichtenstein wrote today, Yankees, Mets Inclusion In NYC’s Vaccine Mandate Might Prove Helpful In Getting Nets Irving Back On Home Court: 

Now, Irving himself initially chose the wrong path by passing on the COVID-19 vaccine that 99% of his NBA colleagues took without any adverse effects. But it’s not Irving who is looking like a science denier these days—it’s New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his administration.

So maybe the news from earlier in the day on Tuesday that both the Mets and the Yankees will be similarly constrained by New York City’s Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate will change the tune.

He adds:

Keeping the Private Employer mandate now, though, isn’t about science or following the data at all—it’s about politics. On that note, KD was exactly right, even if the Nets made him regret saying it. Adams fired over 1,000 city workers after the mandate went into effect on December 27 and doesn’t want to have to explain to the unions why he’s suddenly caving to celebrities.

And now, hints that Adams may be open to rethinking it. That leaves time for baseball's opening day April 7, which just happens to be nine days before the NBA playoffs.

Could the private sector mandate keeping Kyrie Irving on the bench impact unvaccinated Mets and Yankees players? @NYCMayor said he’s constantly evaluating the mandates and restrictions and there’s lots of time before opening day … ⚾️

— katie honan (@katie_honan) March 16, 2022