MY ACCOUNT
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has questioned the logic behind New York’s current vaccine mandates, pushing for teammate Kyrie Irving to be eligible to play.
The unvaccinated Irving was able to attend the Barclays Center, but not play, for Brooklyn’s 110-107 win over the New York Knicks, where an imperious Durant scored a season-high 53 points.
Irving was also in attendance at the same building on Saturday, to watch his college team Duke lose the ACC Championship game.
“It [the New York mandate] is ridiculous,” Durant said after the game. “I don’t understand it at all. There’s a few people in our arena that’s unvaxxed, right? They lifted all of that in our arena, right? So I don’t get it. It just feels like at this point now, somebody’s trying to make a statement or a point to flex their authority.”
New York’s mandates now allow spectators not to be unvaccinated, but still require employees working in the building to be vaccinated. This prompted Durant to speak in solidarity with Irving, with the 33-year-old specifically calling on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to pull the mandate back.
“Everybody is out here looking for attention and that’s what I feel the mayor wants right now, is some attention. But he’ll figure it out soon. He better,” Durant said.
“It just didn’t make any sense. There’s unvaxxed people in this building already. We got a guy who can come in the building. I guess, are they fearing our safety? I don’t get it.
“We’re all confused. Pretty much everybody in the world is confused at this point. Early on in the season people didn’t understand what was going on, but now it just looks stupid. So hopefully, Eric, you got to figure this out.”
