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Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving took a sH๏τ at New York City mayor Eric Adams while torching the Nets for 36 points as Dallas recorded a 119-107 win over Brooklyn.

Irving sH๏τ 15-24 from the field en route to his 36-point masterpiece and also picked up five ᴀssists during the win.

While inbounding the ball late in the game, Irving heard a fan sitting courtside yell out, ‘Kyrie why didn’t you play like this when you were on the Nets? Why Kai?’

Irving then turned his head towards then fan and calmly replied by, ‘Thank Mayor [Eric] Adams for that, bro,’ before turning his attention back to the game at hand.

The remark made by the eight-time All-Star was a jab at Adams over New York’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate during the 2021-22 season when Irving was a member of the Brooklyn Nets.

Kyrie Irving took a hilarious sH๏τ at NYC mayor Eric Adams while scoring 36 points vs Brooklyn

Adams’s NYC Covid-19 vaccine mandate saw Irving miss a lot of the Nets’ home games 

Nets fan: “Kyrie why don’t play like this when you were on the Nets? Why Kai?”Irving: “Thank Mayor [Eric] Adams for that, bro.” (Via @Courtsidenets / h/t @ClutchPoints ) pic.twitter.com/DgSJJbVlrI

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 7, 2024

The unvaccinated Irving was sidelined for much of the 2021-22 season due to the city’s mandate for public arenas and private workplaces, as well as the Nets’ decision to bench him for away games, citing their preference for full-time players. 

Team officials ultimately relented in January 2022, allowing him to play road games, and the city followed in February 2022 by lifting the indoor mandate, allowing him to play at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. 

The mandate had been put in place by Adams predecessor Bill de Blasio, but Adams refuse to either adjust the rules of the mandate or make an exception for Irving as the Nets season had hung in the balance.

Following the first-round playoff exit that season, Nets ᴀssistant coach and former NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire admitted that Irving’s frequent absences had a significant impact on Brooklyn this year.

‘Yeah, I think it hurt us’ Stoudemire, who has since left the Nets, told ESPN in May. ‘It definitely hurt us because we didn’t have consistency enough with Kyrie to build chemistry with the group, with the team.

‘He’s playing only away games depending which city it is… can’t play in New York … therefore we had different lineups, different matchups depending on the game schedule. So it made it difficult for us coaches to figure out who’s going to play in spite of Kyrie. So it was difficult for us to manage that so yeah, it was part of that.’

Irving was forced to miss most of the Nets home games in 2021-22 due to the vaccine mandate

Irving ended up eventually being traded to Dallas last year just before the trade ᴅᴇᴀᴅline.

Following the trade Adams went on to escalate tensions between himself and Irving after taking a parting sH๏τ at the guard on his way out of town.

‘I will find the team that beats us the most and then send him to that team because we would start beating that team,’ Adams said.

 ‘… No matter how much talent you have, your ability to interact with your colleagues is more important.’