As the title favorite at the beginning of the game, the Nets, which once sat on the Big Three, are now suffering from a dismal season of high and low.
With the team firmly occupying the first place in the East at the beginning of the game, with Durant suffering injuries, the team's record plummeted, once suffering from a bad 11 consecutive defeats, and currently only ranks eighth in the East with 30 wins and 27 losses.
The team's poor record led to the third giant Harden choosing to force the palace to leave the team, during which Irving refused to vaccinate, resulting in his inability to play in the home game, which also became one of the main reasons why Harden forced the palace to leave the team.
In his first public briefing after joining the 76ers, Harden was asked if Irving's refusal to vaccinate was the main reason for his departure from the team.
Harden first denied the problem positively, saying that whether Irving was vaccinated did not directly affect his decision to leave the Nets, he and Irving were still good friends, all choices were Irving's personal preferences, and he had no right to interfere.
But then also said that Irving's absence did affect the team, initially his performance with Durant can also cover up the problem, unfortunately, the three only appeared in 16 games together, which is the reason for choosing to join Philadelphia.
It's not hard to hear from Harden's answer that he still likes to express his heart by knocking on the side, just as he forced the palace away from the Rockets and nets through negative games.
Because everyone knows that he is dissatisfied with Irving's part-time status, he chose to leave the Nets, and before leaving, Harden also suggested that Irving complete the vaccination in a public interview, and as a result, Owen directly hit back with Harden's nightclub visit in the interview.
Fortunately, Irving's persistence seems to be about to usher in hope, the league president Xiao Hua talked about New York's epidemic prevention regulations, publicly complained about the Nets, and the new mayor of New York also made a solidarity.
When NBA President Adam Xiaohua was recently on an ESPN show, he was asked about the local epidemic prevention rules in New York, and bluntly said that it was a very stupid rule.
Xiao Hua said that he thought that the rule was stupid, if the rule was to protect the people in the stadium, then why the unvaccinated away players can play in the Barclays Center (the Home Of the Nets), but the home team players can't, which is a very unreasonable thing.
Therefore, I hope that they will re-examine this provision, believing that with the new mayor of New York, the situation will soon change.
Xiao Hua mentioned the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who officially took office on January 1, 2022, and shortly after he took office, the New York Times revealed that he wanted to cancel the mask and vaccine injunction in New York State.
But since then, some parts of New York State have continued to maintain stricter epidemic prevention regulations, but this rule needs to be renewed every five days.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that the new mayor of New York, Eric Adams, will change whether Irving can play in the home game for the Nets in a short period of time.
In the course of the latest interview with The New York Times, Adams was also asked related questions.
Adams said he thought the rule was unfair and was working on it because of the unfair treatment of home and away teams.
In this regard, Nash also said in the interview that the Nets expect New York to cancel the epidemic prevention regulations and hope that Irving can participate in the game, but everything must be finally decided by the new mayor.
If the new mayor of New York does lift the current epidemic prevention regulations, it will be another victory for Irving.
At the beginning of the season, Irving was directly abandoned by the Nets because he refused to be vaccinated, and even did not use him to play away games, but as the situation changed, the Nets took the initiative to give in and agreed to Irving's return as a part-time player.
But if New York's epidemic regulations continue, then Irving and the Nets will be in a very awkward position, and for the remaining regular season, Irving will only play 7 games for the Nets (the number of away games that can be played).