Brooklyn Nets‘ Kyrie Irving will be forfeiting his salary for two games he missed during a five-day quarantine, following a violation of the NBA’s coronavirus health and safety protocols. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Irving will lose $816,898.
The NBA fined the point guard $50,000 on Friday for violating its health and safety protocols, and said he could return to team activities Saturday.
The league added that he would forfeit his salary for each game he misses during a five-day quarantine period that would end Saturday if he continues to test negative for the coronavirus. He’s already missed two, which means he has lost nearly $900,000 of his $33.5 million salary.
This is following an investigation into videos of the Brooklyn Nets guard at a family birthday party that was circulating on social media earlier in the week.
The videos showed a smiling Irving, maskless, dancing and standing next to his sister, Asia, while she blew out candles.
The NBA’s health and safety protocols prohibit players from going to bars, clubs, lounges and gatherings of 15 or more people.
Irving has missed the last five games while away from the Nets for personal reasons. He was seen in a video on social media during his absence at an indoor family party while not wearing a mask.
The Nets have not explained the reasons for Irving’s absence, leaving it to him to do when he returns. Their next game is Saturday against Orlando.
“Without a doubt, the organization’s disappointed with not having any one of our players, in this particular case Kyrie, not amongst us, not in the trenches with us and so forth,” general manager Sean Marks said Thursday during a news conference to discuss the trade for Harden.
“So I don’t want to speculate and say why he’s out and so forth. I’ve had conversations with him and I’ll continue to have conversations and we look forward to him being back in the gym, where he will address this.”
In December, Irving was was fined $25,000 by the NBA for not speaking to the media during preseason.
As a member of the Houston Rockets, earlier this season, James Harden who is now Irving’s new teammate was fined $50,000 for a health and safety protocols violation after an investigation into a widely shared video of him socializing at a club, maskless.
Kyrie Irving and Harden are the only players to have been investigated and fined for health and safety violations this season.
By; Nnamdi M.
