Kevin Durant will not make his big return to the floor when the NBA finally resumes play on July 31. Kyrie Irving will be inactive, as well, though the Brooklyn Nets point guard may still be with the team, having reportedly expressed that he intends to travel to Orlando for the rest of the 2019-20 season.
But, as ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan pointed out on “The Jump,” this could take away a spot from someone else in the organization, with the league needing to set limits on how many people can travel due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Back when Kyrie was a member of the Boston Celtics and he was out for the year with an injury, he ended up scheduling nasal surgery during a very important Game 7 for the Celtics, and he took a ton of criticism for not being there. So I’m not going to be a hypocrite and now say, ‘Well, you’re injured and you wanna go with your teammates? No, that isn’t fair.’ I kinda like this idea. He’s trying to do some team-building. Now, the only problem is, he does take a spot away from someone else. Who that someone is, I’m not [sure]. … But I think Kyrie is coming from a good place here.
MacMullan also added it’s “so smart” that Irving and Durant aren’t going to play:
I’m glad they’re not.
Kendrick Perkins also weighed in on the matter. For once, he wasn’t critical of Irving:
Now that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have both shut the door on playing in Orlando this summer, should either of them still go to Florida to support their teammates from the bench? Kyrie says he wants to, and @KendrickPerkins & Jackie MacMullan are both on-board pic.twitter.com/7CYQKWlVlH
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) June 8, 2020