Hey, Kyrie: God’s not fixing this

Kyrie Irving is out of any kind of legitimate explanations for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine, because there aren’t any. The vaccine is FDA approved, millions of people have been safely vaccinated, and it’s been shown that even though vaccinated people can still get coronavirus, unvaccinated people are far more likely to be hospitalized or worse if they catch it.

With nothing logical available to stand on, Irving decided on Saturday to seek divine intervention to make his case for being a vaccine holdout.

“I am protected by God and so are my people,” Irving tweeted. “We stand together.”

And even with this last-ditch effort at an argument, Irving comes up short.

Who are “my people” that are protected by God, as Irving says?

His Nets teammates? No, they’re all vaccinated, as evidenced by the fact that Irving is the only one who needs municipal intervention to declare the Nets’ practice court a “private office,” thereby allowing Irving to work out as part of the team for which he still can’t play home games because the arena is a public space.

Black folks? No, because even though the vaccination rate remains lower among Black people, more than half of Black New Yorkers have now gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and further to Irving’s claim about God, as The New York Times reported on Saturday, a big part of driving vaccination now is Black churches urging their parishioners to get the jab.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe that Irving officially became part of this summer? No, the tribe understands the severity of the pandemic and has been doing its best to get everyone vaccinated, now focusing on teens with the adults who remain unvaccinated as something of an afterthought.

Australians, as that’s where Irving was born? No, even though vaccinations Down Under got off to a slow start because the country’s initial pandemic response was good enough so that vaccines weren’t as much of a priority… more than 80% of Aussie adults now have gotten at least one shot, and nearly two-thirds are fully vaccinated.

Selfish jerks? Well, that’s a group that has held firm on remaining unvaccinated, not caring whether their fact-averse decision creates a greater risk for people around them, on account of being selfish. That’s who will “stand together” with Irving. But, historically, that’s not a group that really does well with God.

Irving is out of time, out of excuses, and out of credibility. And if he keeps this up, his teammates are going to run out of patience.