Colin Kaepernick and Kyrie Irving may be similar in that they were both forced to go against their beliefs, but for Kendrick Perkins, the situations are incomparable.
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Kaepernick, as you all probably know, was effectively blackballed from the NFL for taking a stand against police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.
In a similar way, Kyrie is being forced to go against his beliefs as the Nets are refusing to make him a full time participant until he takes the Covid-19 vaccine. While the NBA doesn’t require players to get vaccinated, New York does, and playing in Brooklyn, that means Kyrie would be ineligible for all home games. The Nets would rather not deal with a half-time participant, and so they’ve said Kyrie will not rejoin the team till he gets vaccinated.
Kendrick Perkins draws distinct difference between Colin Kaepernick and Kyrie Irving for standing up for their beliefs
With Kyrie choosing to stand up for his beliefs, many fans are comparing his situation to Colin Kaepernick’s who also chose to ignore what the league and state demanded of him. However, according to Kendrick Perkins there exists a clear difference.
Irving finally broke his silence on the situation yesterday when he went live on Instagram to speak up on everything he was going through and where he stood. He made it firm that he’s choosing to stay unvaccinated, but it appears that there was a little deviation in his stance than what people assume it to be as he isn’t against the vaccine itself but rather the fact that the state is requiring the vaccine and that people are losing their jobs over it.
This, of course, is still a very controversial and debatable stance, but this slightly different stance is what has Kendrick Perkins a little annoyed with Kyrie, especially when it comes to comparing him to Colin Kaepernick. He claims that Kaepernick was firm in his stance, you knew exactly what he was standing for and what he wanted to see enacted.
On the other hand, in his eyes, Kyrie is jumping all over the place, and his stance itself isn’t very well defined. Perkins made it clear that he wasn’t telling Kyrie what to do with his body and that he should get the vaccine, but just that he wanted some clarity on where he stands:
NFL and NBA fans took to the comments section to argue Perkins’ claims here as many believe that Kyrie was explicit in what he wanted.
Kyrie’s situation is going to remain polarizing for a long time, and it’s nowhere near being resolved as it’s very literally a matter of players’ and fan’s health and safety.
