The Nets Have Welcomed Back Kyrie. But for How Long?

Irving could be cleared to play as soon as January 5. Can Brooklyn capitalize on whatever time it gets from the superstar point guard?

Kyrie Irving is back.

But for how long?

Irving was present at the Nets practice facility on Wednesday, clear of the NBA’s health and safety protocols and working out with the team that banished him just 10 weeks ago. Facing the media for the first time, Irving appeared at times humbled by his exile.

“I knew the consequences,” Irving said. “I wasn’t prepared for them by no stretch of the imagination … not going to lie, it’s been relatively tough to watch from the sideline with everything going on in the world. I’m just grateful for the opportunity.”

Irving is back because the Nets needed him back. Brooklyn, like the rest of the league, has had its roster ravaged by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. More than 500 players have cycled through rosters this season, an NBA record. The Nets lineup in recent weeks has been scotch taped together with inexperienced young players and faded vets. In December, Kevin Durant’s minutes have soared to more than 40 per game. When the Nets sidelined Irving, it was for the sake of continuity. As Steve Nash said recently, “frankly continuity has been thrown out the window.”

The Nets need bodies, and Irving is an able one. He’s an All-NBA talent coming off one of his most productive offensive seasons. He will need time to get in game shape—Irving has quietly been working out at middle school and college gyms—but when he does he will be an asset in the 21 games he is expected to be eligible for.

“It was tough, and I was resilient, but it’s nothing like being in this environment and playing with the best of the best,” Irving said. “This is where I belong. This is where I’ve worked my entire life to be. So it was like riding a bike or just being at your first day of school again, just going back out there. And I missed it.”

Brooklyn has done 180 on Irving, but let’s not act, as some television pundits have, like that’s a capital offense. The Nets were right to bench Irving in October, when chemistry mattered and Omicron was still just a letter in the Greek alphabet. Circumstances changed, and so did the Nets’ thinking. Yes, Brooklyn is the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but they have the third-best point differential and are just 2 ½ games ahead of the fourth place Heat.

Irving didn’t want the vaccine, but neither did 3% of NBA players. Irving’s issue wasn’t being unvaccinated; it was being unvaccinated in New York City, one of the first cities to issue sweeping vaccine mandates for indoor arenas, like Barclays Center. And it’s worth noting, again, that the city mandate, bizarrely, does not apply to unvaccinated visiting players, who presumably would pose just a great a threat as Irving to public health.

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The Nets were right to recall Irving, but we are left to wonder—until when? This wave of infections is likely to end, whether through boosters, warmer temperatures or the likelihood that most of the NBA will have been infected by it by March. Then what do the Nets do? Do they keep Irving around as a part-time player? Do they enter the playoffs knowing a leading scorer may not be eligible to play in a deciding Game 7?

For now, the Nets can table that discussion, instead focusing on reintegrating Irving into the mix. Irving says he has no ill will towards the team. “It was really a [city] mandate, so I didn’t put too much pressure them,” Irving said. When the Nets approached him about returning, Irving says he was quick to accept. “This is always where I wanted to be,” says Irving. “I wanted to be playing with the team in whatever capacity I can do that.”

Irving won’t be eligible to play until January 5, when the Nets travel to Indiana. Nash said Irving looked “great, considering he just came out of protocols” but admitted assessing Irving will be a “shifting landscape.” DeAndre Bembry said Irving was “the same Kyrie, get to the rack, shoot the midrange, shooting some threes.”

For months, Irving has played the what-if game, left alone to contemplate the wisdom of his choices. But he’s back now and, at least part-time, the NBA’s most formidable trio will be on the floor. He says he had trouble sleeping on Tuesday as he counted the hours until he could return, saying that with Kevin Durant and James Harden in their primes, the team wants to “strike while the iron is hot.”

“We have the talent, we have the IQ to be able to blend together,” said Irving. “But this is going to be a new situation, new circumstance, that we’re going to have to adjust to. And it’s just going to take some patience. So, however I can seamlessly get back into the swing of things, that's what I’m trying to do.”