Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving revealed Monday that he gave up a four-year contract extension worth about $100 million because he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Starting last year, officials in New York City implemented a COVID-19 vaccine passport system that barred anyone who could not show they were vaccinated from entering certain locations. That included the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“I gave up four years, 100-and-something million deciding to be unvaccinated, and that was the decision,” Irving told reporters on Monday. “[Get this] contract, get vaccinated, or be unvaccinated and there’s a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you’re going to be in this league, whether you’re going to be on this team. So I had to deal with that real-life circumstance of losing my job for this decision.”…