Milwaukee Bucks: 3 reasons the door is open for a title repeat
By Duncan Smith
Reasons the door is open for the Milwaukee Bucks repeat: 2. The Kyrie Irving saga
The Brooklyn Nets are the top contender to unseat the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference, but it’s going to be tough to do if they’re not at full strength. Mind you, they almost beat the Nets without Kyrie Irving and a hobbled James Harden, but it’s tough to do something like that twice.
Now the Nets are shorthanded once again for the foreseeable future, but this time it’s for a self-inflicted reason. Kyrie Irving has decided that he won’t be getting vaccinated during a global pandemic, flying in the face of local mandates requiring vaccinations for anybody participating in indoor events.
He could hope to play part-time, only joining the team for practices and games on the road, but it sounds like the Nets aren’t interested in that option. Irving will likely either have to get vaccinated and join the team on a full-time basis, or decline, and completely torch an entire season.
If he did so, that would mean the duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would have three straight squandered seasons together in Brooklyn. Sometimes injuries get you, and sometimes it’s the judgment of Kyrie Irving that gets you.
Should Irving not yield on this front, it’s going to be his judgment that torpedoes them this season, and the Bucks have a wide-open door to the top of the East to smash through.