Podcaster Steven Crowder releases clips of COVID policy maker seemingly bragging about "blocking Kyrie Irving from playing basketball"
New York City's former COVID-19 vaccination mandate infamously prevented then-Brooklyn Nets star point guard Kyrie Irving from playing home games during the 2021-22 NBA season. While many considered Irving's circumstances unfortunate, the city's COVID czar at the time, Dr. Jay Varma, seemingly relished holding him out of competition.
New York City's vaccine mandate made Irving miss 35 of Brooklyn's home contests from late October 2021 until late March 2022. Moreover, the eight-time All-Star's unwavering anti-vaccination stance reportedly cost him a four-year, $100-plus million contract extension from the franchise.
Varma, then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's senior health advisor, ran the city's pandemic response when the vaccine mandate was implemented. Thus, he was seemingly responsible for the policy that kept Irving off the floor, or so he supposedly claimed himself.
On Thursday, conservative podcaster Steven Crowder's "Mug Club" released a series of clips of Varma speaking to undercover operatives. In one video filmed on July 27, Varma appears to gladly take credit for stopping Irving from suiting up at Barclays Center.
"There was a basketball player named Kyrie Irving. He refused to get vaccinated. But because he played for the team in Brooklyn, because of the vaccine mandate I passed, he was not allowed to play," Varma said. "So, it became this huge national issue about why Kyrie Irving wasn't allowed to play basketball because he was refusing to get vaccinated."
Varma can later be seen laughing as he recounts The Wall Street Journal's 2021 article about him titled "The Doctors Who Blocked Kyrie Irving."
“This is a fun part of my life," Varma said. "The Wall Street Journal wrote a whole story about me being the one that blocked Kyrie Irving from playing basketball."
While Irving was steadfast in his refusal to get vaccinated, he was ultimately cleared to play home games in late March 2022. Then-newly appointed New York City mayor Eric Adams made the city's professional athletes and performers exempt from the vaccine mandate.
Kyrie Irving said his anti-vaccination stance shouldn't have been a "stigma"
In late September 2022, Kyrie Irving spoke about his controversial decision to remain unvaccinated. He noted that his personal choice shouldn't have influenced his league-wide reputation.
"I didn't appreciate how me being vaccinated, all of a sudden, came to be a stigma within my career that I don't want to play, or I'm willing to give up everything to be a voice for the voiceless," Irving said. "And which I will stand on here and say that wasn't the only intent that I had, was to be the voice of the voiceless, it was to stand on something that was going to be bigger than myself."
Irving ultimately played only part of one more season with Brooklyn, getting traded to the Dallas Mavericks at the 2023 NBA trade deadline. His three-and-a-half-year Nets tenure has since been remembered for being tainted by injuries and off-court controversies.
However, Irving has seemingly salvaged his reputation with Dallas. He is coming off a 2024 NBA Finals appearance as superstar guard Luka Doncic's right-hand man in his first full season with the franchise. He also received a three-year, $126 million contract from the Mavericks last summer.
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