‘The Hell With You’: Stephen A. Smith Torches Kyrie Irving’s Vaccine Defiance on CNN
Tuesday morning, the Brooklyn Nets announced their decision to bar Kyrie Irving from participating in any team activities until he’s compliant with New York City’s indoor Covid vaccine mandate.
Despite Irving’s eligibility to practice with the team and play in most road games, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has zero sympathy for the NBA superstar getting benched.
“The mandate is in New York, it’s in L.A. now, it’s in San Francisco,” Smith told CNN’s Don Lemon. “If this man does not get vaccinated he would be violating the mandate and as a result he would miss 41 games for the Brooklyn Nets.”
Local vaccine mandates would also force Irving to miss road games against the Knicks, Warriors, Lakers and Clippers. Instead of using him as a part-time player, the Nets decided to bench Irving and move forward with their roster of vaccinated players.
“I’m sorry, if you can’t take a vaccine that over 6.2 billion people in the world have already taken, trying to claim that you think there’s some kind of conspiracy going on,” Smith ranted. “And you want to be that defiant and leave the rest of your team hanging…as far as I’m concerned, the hell with you.”
Irving has not publicly addressed his reasoning for refusing the vaccine. Last month, Rolling Stone reported the NBA star has bought into wild conspiracies about the jab being the plan of satan to control Black people. Tuesday night, The Athletic reported Irving wants to be a “voice for the voiceless,” according to a source.
“Sit him down,” Smith said. “Let him stay home, don’t pay him a dime and let him live his life…yes he has the freedom and the right to do what he wants to do, they also have the right to say ‘see ya.’”
More than 95 percent of NBA players are vaccinated against Covid, but the league previously stated teams will not have to pay unvaccinated players who miss games because of local city laws.
For Irving, local vaccine mandates allows the Nets to save on at least half of his $33 million salary. But the All-Star will likely have a gripe if the Nets withhold his road game earnings, considering the team is choosing to bench him for those games that he would otherwise be eligible to play in.
Watch above via CNN
