NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 05: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets drives against the Utah Jazz ... [+]
Kyrie Irving has already missed six games with the Brooklyn Nets and head coach Steve Nash said it’s “to be determined” if he will miss a seventh.
Irving was not available Saturday when James Harden made his Nets debut alongside Kevin Durant against the Orlando Magic. He last played Jan. 5 due to a combination of “personal reasons” and NBA Covid-19 protocols.
“Hopefully we’re close, I can’t really give you a firm update on that,” head coach Steve Nash said on a pre-game Zoom.
“We have assess that as we go. We do want to make sure that he ramps up accordingly so that he’s not susceptible to unnecessary injury, protect him the best we can. But hopefully it’s a short period of time and that is to be determined.”
The Nets play Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks Monday in a nationally televised game on TNT.
On Friday, Irving was fined $50,000 by the NBA for violating the league’s Covid protocols and he was set to lose about $870,000 in total, including pay for two games he missed during an NBA-mandated quarantine this week.
Irving makes about $410,000 per game and forfeited salary for two games in addition to paying the $50,000 fine.
“Without a doubt, I’m not going to shy away from it, without a doubt the organization is disappointed with not having any one of our players, in this particular case Kyrie, not amongst us, not in the trenches with us and so forth,” Nets GM Sean Marks said Thursday. “And so I don’t want to speculate and say why he’s out and so forth. I’ve had conversations with him and I’ll continue to have conversations and I look forward to him being back in the gym and he will address this and we’ll sit down with him.”
