Stone wrote:The question's that need to answered now are...
Where is the line in the sand? In other words, how many days, weeks, months will it be before he KI is unwelcome by a majority of the front office, the team and the fans?
What legal ground if any does the front office have to terminate his contract?
Where does the players union stand on this?
That isnt how these things work, especially for large corporations/firms/organzaitons/franchises/etc...
Unless you have like some hot head owner who meddles like james dolan or jerry jones or steinbrenner (RIP) these things arent happening with "lines in the sand" or "deamnds" or "you need to...". If that does happen, its usually player initiated (Ben Simmons, harden last year, etc...)
The way this all plays out is from a much less dramatic much more intelligent matter. Something probably more along the lines of:
-Mandate comes out, Team consults with legal to see how it effects them, Players union does the same
-Players who arent vaxed consult with their agents, legal, players association
-Team talks to unvaxxed players to guage where they are going
-players (kyrie) hesistant to get vaxed they move to more detailed disucssions...
"whats the road block" "what needs to happen" "what are our options" "this is how we see it".
I assume those awsners from Kyrie were something like, i have no plans to get vaccinated because of (risk nonsense) or (religious) or (whatever).
Team tries to educate him on what thats a non-issue, Kyrie not convinced or isnt focused on that right now
-We move on to more productive stuff "what are the options?"
1) What exemption options are there (religious appeal - may be happening we dont know)
2) Loopholes to the mandate? Does residency matter? Are their cultural exemptions for natives in the city (not nba) mandate?
3) Can we wait it out? The mandate is not permanent. if the city of NY reaches a vaccine level of "X%" they may remove it. if hospitilzations/infections are down they may remove it. if cops/nurses/docs/fireman sue and win, they may remove/alter it.
The team and Kyrie may feel its more amicable to compromise and see how current challenges in court to the mandate go and if waiting it out is an option. missing 41 home games seems like a lot. but they play only 9 in the first month. if the mandate is edited due to court challenges by then, missing less then 10 games seems like less of a big deal.
Also, the team would have to be COMPLETE douchebags if they told Kyrie he has to get vaccinated or they will suspend/trade him if he is in the process of a religious appeal and hasn't had a decision on that. Regardless of if you hate kyrie or not, or think he is a moron or not... anyone who doesnt allow someone to go through a religious appeal is somewhere between unreasonable and a d-bag.
ok moving on....
any appeals fail, mandate sticks, looks like missing 41+ games. this is where the team goes to KD and is like here are our options:
-let him choose between missing 41 games or just taking a year off
-setting a hardline on you either play or you dont
-trade him
The Nets would be dumb not to give KD the options and at least hear his input. I Assume they would go with option 1. Letting Kyrie decide. "hey look, you play road games or you can sit out... we feel its best you sit out until the situaiton is sorted, its best for the team if when your back your fully back" hope he agrees and its a Kyrie hiatus mutually agreed on until a mandate is lifted.
Setting a hardline makes no sense. you gain nothing, you look like the bad guy to some players, you make the relaitonship worse, you tank any value he may have in a trade if that possible.
Trading him just doesnt work. 1 he can retire. he might. i dont believe that report, but he certiainly has other options. His value is low. anyone trading for him loses him at away games to brooklyn. you likely need to go through brooklyn (and pobably GS too) to win a title. No rebuilding team fits. and anyone value wise who works for kyrie is not being dealt (kawhi, curry, etc...).
Best bet would be a pick package, but again, no team with decent picks would want him because they are rebuilding.
Long story short, behind the scenes this isnt nearly as dramatic, they will take things 1 step at a time and keep all of their options open. the team will prepare for the worst case (whole year without him) and day to day they will work with their legal team and the NBA on possible ways around the mandate.
The media will feast on it every day as if its super pressing with the nets. i assure you, its not nearly how they make it out
