What a tangled net we weave: The of paradox of letting Kyrie Irving play or not
As Mayor Adams has suggested, it makes little sense that unvaccinated Net Kyrie Irving has to sit out Barclays Center home games while unvaccinated players on opposing teams get to suit up and play.
At first blush, there are three possible pathways to squaring this circle, assuming Irving remains foolishly at risk: Let Kyrie play in Brooklyn, giving one privileged person permission to flout the Key to NYC vaccine rules; end the restrictions requiring proof of vaccination to enter sports arenas and the like, understanding that we’re in a new phase of the pandemic; or double down, barring unvaccinated out-of-towners from hitting the hardwood too (while also ending an exemption that lets unvaxed musicians and others performing artists play New York).
We favor the second pathway, relatively soon. Eighty-six percent of New York City adults are fully vaccinated, proof that the program largely succeeded in incentivizing the shot. In a free society, in absence of a true public health crisis, rules requiring everyone to show vaccination status to enter a restaurant or concert hall or gym ought not stay in place indefinitely. They don’t stop community spread (vaccinated people can easily carry the omicron variant), and nobody needs to show proof of polio or flu vaccination to sit in a diner and eat a hamburger.
The trouble is, New York City has a second mandate that would bar Irving from playing in Brooklyn if the Key to NYC vanished tomorrow.
The city now requires all private businesses to ensure that employees who “come to their workplace” have had their shots. Everyone in the National Basketball Association headquarters abides by that rule. Everyone in the Nets’ back offices and arena — janitors, concessionaires — abides by that rule. Adams had a chance to discard the mandate, which de Blasio implemented late last year; he stuck with it.
Though Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi has said there will be “a focus on compliance, not punishment,” how can the city let one high-profile employer and employee skirt the law? Something’s got to give.
