Unvaccinated Kyrie Irving call himself a ‘martyr’ over Nets’ handling of his playing time during mandate

The Nets were blindsided when a New York City vaccinate mandate would not let unvaccinated Kyrie Irving play in home games.

The Nets originally said Irving would not be with the team as long as he remained unvaccinated, but with injuries and a large losing skid, they changed their tune in December, and welcomed him for road games -- he returned to the court in January.

But Irving, who described himself as a "martyr," while talking on the ETCs Podcast, said the Nets had "no plan, no vision" to have him play in road games earlier than he did.

"When we got into training camp in San Diego, I was not expecting a mandate to be brought down in a way that it wasn't going to allow me to play at all. I had the opportunity to play in away games still, but there was no plan in place, there was no vision of how it was going to work for our team, and I think that really impacted not just me, but a lot of people. So just had to sit in that hot seat for a little, and deal with it man. 

"Life of a martyr, bro."

The city's mandate was lifted in March for athletes, which allowed Irving to finally play home games. But while Irving was away from the team, he admitted he started to think about a future that didn't include the Nets.

"I was wondering at home what my future was gonna look like," Irving said. "Whether I was gonna be traded, whether I was gonna be released, whether I was gonna get the opportunity to be on another team, how I was going to spin this for myself in a positive way."

Irving and the Nets were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last week.