At this point, the Nets should just pay the fine.
Even though Mayor Eric Adams is set to repeal the Key2NYC vaccine mandate by March 7 (an official determination will be made on March 4), there’s another mandate that will keep Brooklyn’s star guard Kyrie Irving off the floor.
New York City also has a private sector vaccine mandate that will restrict Irving from playing in home games, though removing the Key2NYC mandate will allow him to enter Barclays Center (and Madison Square Garden) as a spectator.
So, to keep score: Opposing unvaccinated players can play at both The ‘Clays and MSG without penalty, and now Irving, who was previously barred from entering arenas in-city, can enter both arenas and sit with his teammates.
He just can’t step on the floor and play.
Make it make sense.
You can’t, because it doesn’t.
Which is why the Nets should circumvent the mandate by paying the fine associated with disobeying the mandate keeping Irving off the floor.
If Nets and the NBA really want to, they can let unvaccinated Kyrie Irving play in Brooklyn — for a small fine
In fact, the first offense is on the house. The Nets will only receive a warning for disregarding the mandate the first time.
The second time? $1,000.
Third time? $2,000, and every other subsequent violation is worth $5,000.
The Nets only have 13 more home games in the regular season, plus another game at Madison Square Garden.
That’s $58,000 for the rest of the NYC-based games in the regular season, another $5,000 if they have home-court advantage in their increasingly likely play-in tournament game, and another $60,000 if they play three home games in every playoff series through the NBA Finals.
Are better odds at an NBA championship worth $123,000?
Nets owner Joe Tsai is already $160 million in the hole in payroll, plus another $97 million in luxury tax payments.
The total bill associated with paying vaccine mandate fines for the rest of their championship run would be worth less than half of a percent — of a percent — of the payroll plus the luxury tax. With the uncertainty — and inconsistency — in New York City’s vax rules, it’s time for the Nets to take matters into their own hands.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver agrees: The vaccine mandate doesn’t quite make sense.
“This law in New York, the oddity of it to me, is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said on a Feb. 16 appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up.”
“I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays but the home player can’t. To me, that’s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
Mayor Adams is set to repeal the very ordinance Silver is referring to, but there’s another one keeping Irving off the floor. The Nets have waited for City Hall long enough. It’s time for them to cut the check, and given the money they’ve already spent, it’ll be the lightest bill Tsai has paid all season.
