“Extremely proud of you Kyrie Irving!”: JR Smith takes to Twitter to give props to the Nets star amidst vaccine concerns

Kyrie Irving receives support amidst his vaccine concerns from his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, JR Smith. 

Kyrie Irving has been the talk of the league ever since media day due to the fact that he’s unvaccinated against COVID-19. Fast-forward to present day and the Brooklyn Nets guard has still not gotten the shot. This has resulted in the Brooklyn Nets General Manager releasing a statement that forbids Irving from playing or practicing with the Nets. 

This drastic measure was taken in order to build chemistry between players who are going to be with the team full-time. Important figures within the Nets organization such as Kevin Durant, Sean Marks, and even Joe Tsai have expressed their desire to see Kyrie Irving back on the court for Brooklyn.

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Kyrie even took it upon himself to clear up any confusion regarding his status by taking to his Instagram live. Here he would go on to laugh at the notion that he would ever give up basketball over his vaccine beliefs, chucking aside the notion that would retire if not allowed to play. 

JR Smith expresses how proud he is of Kyrie Irving on Twitter. 

Quite nearly everybody in the NBA landscape has given their two cents about the Kyrie Irving situation. JR Smith adds his name to this seemingly never-ending list of basketball personalities as he takes to Twitter to shout out his former Cleveland Cavalier teammate. 

Extremely proud of you bro! @KyrieIrving pic.twitter.com/42PRQFOHyq

— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) October 14, 2021

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JR Smith isn’t the first to actually give props to Kyrie Irving for his stance on remaining to stay unvaccinated. During the aforementioned Instagram live he did, Stephon Marbury said that Muhammed Ali would be proud of Irving. Coincidentally, Jason Whitlock said something in a similar vain. 

Seems as though the conversation regarding the vaccine has shifted from being a public safety issue to being one that is a personal choice. This doesn’t seem like the right approach for handling a virus that cased a pandemic but it’s something that led to a bit of peace to ensue between both sides of this rather odd spectrum.