Kyrie Irving is notorious for being an anti-vaxxer. His stance cost him approximately $400,000 for every game he missed!
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When Kyrie Irving decided not to get vaccinated, players around the league looked at it with caution. They knew that in order to play every game, the vaccine was mandatory.
This didn’t deter Kyrie, who was determined to stand by his belief. Ultimately, the league respected his choices but as per the rules of New York, he wasn’t allowed to play home games.
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The result? Kyrie Irving would lose close to $380,000 for every game he missed. This sum might be minor to most NBA players but over the course of a year, it becomes a huge number.
Kyrie would lose close to $15.6 million by missing all home games. Fortunately for him, he did play the last 6 home games, which minimized the damage.
Also read: Kyrie Irving ‘being absolutely clutch’ gives fans a $5,775 payday
Kyrie Irving lost $380,000 per game, which was four times Bill Russell’s annual salary in 1965!
Now, Kyrie’s loss for an athlete of his stature is not much. But when we compare it to the salary scales from the yesteryears, we see that it is colossal.
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Bill Russell, perhaps one of the greatest of all time, was paid a measly $100,001. That extra 1$ is not a typo, Russell specifically asked for that so he could get paid more than Wilt Chamberlain.
The fact of the matter here is that for Irving to lose $380,000 for not getting vaccinated was nearly four times the annual salary of A legend, which shows how far we have come.
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