Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has confirmed that he has no plans to retire or give up on his dream of winning another championship. The All-Star has been scrutinized heavily on the back of his decision not to receive vaccination against COVID-19 and was on the end of even more criticism after The Athletic broke a story on the reason he isn’t keen on taking the shot.
Per the aforementioned publication, Irving took to Instagram Live on Wednesday night to ask people to respect his choice while allaying fears he could retire.
“I chose to be unvaccinated,” the guard was quoted as saying, “and that is my choice and I would ask you to respect it.
“You think I really want to give up on my dream to go after a championship? You think I really just want to just give up my job? You think I really just want to sit at home and not go after the things with my teammates that I’ve been able to grow with to learn with?”
The Nets have opted to leave Irving on the sidelines for the time being; he won’t be allowed to play or train until he meets New York City’s vaccination mandate.
Teammate James Harden spoke on the issues surrounding Kyrie’s decision earlier this week, indicating that, while he’s disappointed not to have the latter involved in team affairs, the Nets have to keep moving forward.
“Individually, myself, I’m still wanting to set myself up for a championship,” Harden said. “And I feel like the entire organization is on the same path. And we’re all as a collective unit. We’ll keep pushing forward and we’ll try to do our best every single day to get better and keep going as a collective unit.”
