Brooklyn Nets drop hammer; Kyrie Irving can’t be a part-time player

The Brooklyn Nets have dropped the hammer on Kyrie Irving. 

The Brooklyn Nets want Kyrie Irving to either be all-in or all-out this season.

The Nets made it official Tuesday morning that, essentially, Kyrie will not be allowed to be a part-time player for the team. Due to New York state law, Kyrie needs to be (COVID-19) vaccinated to participate in home games. He’s not at the moment, he said as much (without saying it) at the start of training camp when he met, via zoom, with reporters.

Kyrie is allowed to practice with the team, per the state of New York, but still can’t participate in games. He is eligible to play in away games, but the Nets have shot the idea of playing only on the road down.

As of this past weekend, it appeared that Kyrie had not budged and that he was still not ready to get vaccinated. Of course, that could always change at any moment and perhaps it does with this recent development.

Now that the Nets have made their decision and it’s clear that Kyrie essentially won’t be a part of the Nets organization until he gets vaccinated or restrictions are lifted in the state of New York, the narrative now shifts into Kyrie’s hands.

What happens next will entirely be in his control. And with everything that we know about Kyrie, there’s no telling what he’s going to elect to do next.

Could retirement be on the table? Perhaps he’ll sit out a season in hopes that COVID-19 restrictions will ease by the start of the next season. Will he get vaccinated now? Will he OK a trade away from the Nets to a team that will allow him to remain unvaccinated?

There are so many ways this story can turn next, there’s really no predicting. But what we know for sure is that the Nets won’t allow Kyrie to be a part-time player this season. The question now is, will we see Kyrie at all this season?