Report: NYC's Vaccine Mandate Expected to End, Allowing Kyrie Irving to Return for Nets' Home Games

Kyrie Irving may soon be permitted to play in Brooklyn Nets home games with New York City's vaccine mandate expected to come to an end

Aaron Rose | Mar 23, 2022

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Kyrie Irving may soon be cleared to play in Brooklyn Nets' home games.

There's growing confidence that New York City's private-sector vaccine mandate will be lifted and unvaccinated workers will be allowed to return to work, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Jeff Passan.

Story filed to ESPN w/ @JeffPassan: Progress toward further changes to NYC’s private-sector vaccine mandate has inspired confidence that Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving could be back on court for home games in near future. Yankees and Mets players would be cleared before Opening Day too.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 23, 2022

The change would allow the unvaccinated Irving to return to Brooklyn and play home games for the Nets for the first time this season. He has so far only been permitted to play road games for the Nets due to the vaccine mandate.

Irving's return to the court would be a massive addition to Brooklyn and could cause some problems for the Toronto Raptors who currently sit two games up on the Nets for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference with 10 games to go in the season. The Nets play six of their final 10 games at home and are within striking distance of Toronto to open the play-in tournament at home next month.

If the season ended today, Brooklyn would open the play-in tournament in Toronto where Irving is not permitted to play due to federal border restrictions that prohibit unvaccinated foreign nationals from entering the country. Should the Nets catch the Raptors, however, Toronto would open the playoffs in Brooklyn where Irving may soon be allowed to play.

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