Kevin Durant took a shot at mayor Eric Adams after his 53 point game for not allowing Kyrie Irving to play, and Stephen A. Smith heavily disagreed with it.
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The Nets have had an incredibly tumultuous season, especially for a team that was expected to compete for the championship. Of course, they still can, but the path has become much harder than people would have expected.
Firstly, New York laid down a mandate that said all basketball players had to be vaccinated in order to play. Irving did not take the vaccine, and as a result, he hasn’t been able to play in any home games. At the start of the season, things were still fine for the Nets, and they hadn’t even activated Kyrie for away games. They were hovering between the #1 and #2 seeds throughout the year, but then the injury bug hit them.
Durant and Harden both missed time, and the Nets then called on Kyrie for all away games. Durant got injured again, and then Harden forced a trade out to the 76ers, completely dismantling their big three. Now, with Durant back and Irving available for all away games, a title is somewhat within sight.
Ice in his veins.
Another look at *that* shot from @KDTrey5 🤩 pic.twitter.com/13swth6JRx
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 13, 2022
Stephen A. Smith calls out Kevin Durant for taking a shot at New York’s mayor
After Durant’s explosive performance against the Knicks, he went on a press conference tirade where he disagreed with mayor Eric Adam’s decision to not allow Kyrie to play even though he can attend games and sit unmasked as an unvaccinated person.
Kevin Durant teed off on New York City’s nonsensical covid rules. Good for him: pic.twitter.com/oCdgIRHIY8
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 14, 2022
However, you can think of the analogy like this. In a hospital, an unvaccinated person should be allowed to come and visit a patient in the hospital, but the nurse working at the hospital must be vaccinated.
Stephen A. Smith did not appreciate Durant calling out the mayor as well, but he did agree with Durant’s point about how the policies surrounding Irving are inconsistent.
To be clear: @KDTrey5 is NOT WRONG with what he said… but calling out the MAYOR was NOT WISE! pic.twitter.com/onKycuABpG
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 14, 2022
Smith isn’t wrong though. If Durant does have a problem, there are better ways to handle it than going public and calling out the mayor directly. The mayor has said he won’t be making an exemption for Kyrie because that would set the wrong precedent.