Off-The-Court Nets News Begs More Questions Than It Answered
Nets fans exhaled a little after Brooklyn clawed back from a disgraceful first-half effort to hold off a patchwork Portland club, 128-123, at Barclays Center on Friday night. A loss to such an injury-depleted team might have been the worst of a season chock full of them, but the Nets (37-34) managed to maintain their 1.5 game cushion over the two 9/10 seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Unfortunately, the not-so-good off-the-court news reports related to their two missing All-Stars—Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons—overshadowed the victory, as they were far more consequential to Brooklyn’s prospects for the postseason. Those reports each begged more questions than it answered:
1) Will Kyrie Irving ever step foot on the Barclays Center floor in a Nets uniform again?
It sure sounded like a possibility based on the remarks from New York City’s new Health Commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, at his press conference earlier in the day. Vasan echoed Mayor Eric Adams’ unflinching resolve to keep the Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate in effect for the foreseeable future—and maybe beyond.
“I think it’s indefinite at this point,” Vasan said.
The unvaccinated Irving has been banned from participating at Nets home games this season, all the while giving no indication that he will cave and get the jab in advance of the playoffs. Such a stance has been a heavy slap in the face to his supposed good friend Kevin Durant, who is wasting an MVP-caliber campaign (if not for injuries) at the tail end of his basketball-playing prime years. The duo has played only seven games together during this underachieving regular season. Brooklyn is 5-2 in those contests, all on the road (obviously), including statement wins in Chicago and Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Irving is currently only eligible to play in three of Brooklyn’s final 11 games.
With Irving, most experts believe the Nets can compete with anyone. However, this season has also shown that the Nets’ “next men up” just don’t have the talent to overcome Irving’s part-time status in a postseason series, or possibly a play-in game with KD as the solo star.
After that, what then? Irving has a player option on the four-year contract he signed in the Clean Sweep 2019 offseason. Unless he exercises the option, it’s hard for the Nets to justify bringing him back for another round of “Will-he, won’t he” next season. (See next question)
2) Since when is an emergency “indefinite?”
Read the actual order that went into effect on December 27. It says, “pursuant to Section 3.01(d) of the Health Code, I (former Mayor Bill de Blasio) am authorized to issue orders and take actions that I deem necessary for the health and safety of the City and its residents when urgent public health action is needed to protect the public health against an existing threat and a public health emergency has been declared pursuant to such section…
So, where’s the emergency? If the City won’t ease mandates now, when, despite the presence of the BA.2 variant in about 30% of new cases, according to a New York Times report, the seven-day averages of hospitalizations and deaths are still down over 95% from its January peak, then maybe “indefinitely” could theoretically turn into “forever”. There’s always going to be some new variant of the coronavirus, so will the pandemic ever transition to endemic in this Mayor’s eyes? How about a hint, like giving us some markers to shoot for?
Nah, Vasan gave away the moral high ground when he said after trumping the effectiveness of the mandates, “I would love for me to sit here and say, 'I can give you a date or a data point when we would lift those things.'"
In other words, “When it comes to who, when, where people are allowed to work, it’s my judgement call.”
I don’t know how this would stand up in court if challenged. The Mayor rescinded the Key to NYC mandates for congregate settings on March 7, which is way riskier in terms of community spread of the virus than if he allowed NYC-based athletes, including Yankees and Mets players, to perform alongside already-eligible unvaccinated visiting team players. Barclays Center now allows unvaccinated and unmasked fans, including Irving, to sit on top of each other to watch Nets games. So much for a health care crisis.
As I wrote in my previous Nets post, this is all PR BS. Adams fired over a thousand unvaccinated city workers so the “indefinite” comment was purposefully thrown out to support a policy that was premature at best, unconstitutional at worst, and has nothing to do with the data and science showing that the City is in the midst of an emergency.
3) Was Simmons damaged goods when he was traded to Brooklyn, or did the Nets Performance Team fumble the ball in the ramp-up?
Nets Head Coach Steve Nash did his best organized crime figure imitation when he was asked about Simmons’ back injury timeline prior to Friday’s game. There were several “I can’t remember’s” and other evasive responses to questions that should have been directed to higher-ups in Nets management, like General Manager Sean Marks, only he’s rarely available.
Simmons, who was the featured return (not to disrespect Seth Curry, who has been shooting the lights out for Brooklyn and spurred Friday’s comeback by knocking down 7-of-11 from three-point land) in the blockbuster trade with Philadelphia for James Harden on February 10, hasn’t suited up once in a Nets uniform. He hasn’t even practiced, reportedly tweaking his back while undergoing individual conditioning workouts from having not played since last June. Per Nash, Simmons had an MRI a couple of weeks ago, which revealed a strain. An ESPN report narrowed it down to “an irritation of the L-4 disc of the lower spine.”
If this were a fluke one-off, there’d be no questions asked. However, Nets fans have seen plenty of these “setbacks” over the years, including with Joe Harris and his injured ankle this season, and should demand answers as to what is going on with their vaunted Performance Team that is supposed to minimize these mishaps.
Simmons has had back issues in the past, so presumably the Nets conducted and signed off on a physical before completing the trade. Nash, of course, couldn’t recall when Simmons’ back started being troublesome, though he believed it flared up during a workout at the Nets practice facility.
That isn’t a great sign either, The Performance Team’s sole function is to prepare the players to play in the games and now, according to ESPN, Simmons might only get in a couple before the season ends.
Nets fans can hope for such a best-case scenario, though that hasn’t done us much good this season.