NYC's Mayor Eric Adams may end city's vaccine mandate soon opening door for Kyrie Irving

The Brooklyn Nets could be in for some very good news, after New York's new mayor announced that vaccine mandates could soon be changed.

NYC Mayor, Eric Adams to change vaccine mandate

If there is one team that will be celebrating the news that NYC's mayor is considering bringing an end to the city's vaccine mandate, it's the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets have of course seen their star Kyrie Irving barred from playing in home games at Barclays Center as a result of the mandate. That, however, is now set to change according to reports on Wednesday which explained that New York City mayor Eric Adams simply "can't wait" to phase out mask and vaccine mandates.

Confronted with the idea that Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. are all in the process, or have already ended their mandates as they relate to permission of entry to indoor spaces, Adams was asked whether or not NYC have a plan to follow suit. "Yes, and I can't wait to get it done. I take my hat off to New Yorkers. Through masks, vaccines, through social distancing. We were hit with the uncertainty, the fear of COVID. I'm really proud of how we responded as New Yorkers. Every morning I meet with my health professionals - I always say that I'm gonna follow the science. I'm not gonna get ahead of the science. Because I'm ready to get ahead of all of this and get ready to a level of normality, but they're giving us clear instructions, they gave us benchmarks and we're gonna follow those benchmarks."

The reasoning behind ending NYC's vaccine mandates

NYC's Mayor, Eric Adams was open about his thinking and intentions where vaccine mandates are concerned when speaking with journalists on Wednesday. "I look forward to the next few weeks of going through a real transformation that I don't have to wonder what you look like. I will know what you look like again. We are moving in the right direction, we're going to do it in a safe way, because all of these experts will tell you the same thing: We can't close down again. We can't close down again. I'm not going to do something out of my anticipation to get back that will jeopardize closing down the city again."

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"Our economy can't handle it. We don't have another 11 billion dollars to put back in the economy. We must do it in a smart way, and people are gonna look back later and say, 'you know, he made the right decisions.' We're gonna get the city back up and operating, and we're gonna be rolling out some things in the next day or so about how we're going to carry that out."

How will Eric Adams' plan work?

To date the NBA has never truly considered the idea of implementing their own mandate, instead the league has preferred and indeed stressed that it will follow the local and national health guidelines. With that in mind one can imagine that with this latest news Irving and co. will be quite happy. Should the city completely remove the mandate, Irving will once again be allowed to take the court in his own arena as opposed to simply road games. Adams for his part has always been a supporter of a cautious approach, but with his most recent comments it would appear that the mandate could be lifted in the very near future.

Where the Nets themselves are concerned, Brooklyn currently sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. They are 2.5 games behind the sixth-place Boston Celtics who hold on to the last of the guaranteed playoff spots. To make matters somewhat more complicated, Kevin Durant is currently sidelined due to a knee injury and recently acquired Ben Simmons is tied up at the moment with return to play protocols. If Irving returns, it will be much needed boost for a team that has been tipped as a serious title contender in a moment when they need it most.