Kyrie Irving Initially Included On NBA's 75 Greatest Players Of All Time?

Source: Steven Ryan / Getty

Kyrie Irving hasn’t stepped on the hardwood yet this season, but he’s one of the hottest stories.

The Brooklyn Net has refused to get his COVID-19 vaccine, so the team has decided to bench him indefinitely until he gets the jab. It turns out that millions of dollars aren’t the only thing Irving’s missing out on; he also didn’t make the NBA’s Greatest 75 players of all-time list.

Twitter sleuths have found alleged evidence that Irving was supposed to make the list, but the NBA decided to remove him.

The tweets show archived pages allegedly published by the NBA, who then renigged as fans think it’s because of his views on the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I hope that Kyrie, despite how strongly he feels about the vaccination, ultimately decides to get vaxxed because I’d love to see him play basketball this season & I’d love to see the Nets have their full complement of players on the floor,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said of Irving’s vaccine status.

Real or not, the protest for Irving’s free will is very much present at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center beginning prior to Sunday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets.

The rally started hours before the game at a park about a mile away from Barclays Center and was organized by groups, including Teachers for Choice, and Black Lives Matter activist Hank Newsome, who marched to Barclays with signs that read “Let Kyrie Play,” and “Stand With Kyrie.”

“I am staying grounded in what I believe in. It is not about being anti-vax or about being on one side or the other. It is just really about being true to what feels good for me,” Irving said recently. “This has everything to do with what is going on in our world, and I am being grouped into something that is bigger than just the game of basketball.”

Here’s how the protest went down:

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