Irving, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets, confirmed at a press conference earlier this week that he lost a contract worth over $100 million guaranteed because he refused to submit to the jab, a decision that he has been vindicated in doing over time.
“I gave up four years, 100-and-something million deciding to be unvaccinated and that was the decision,” Irving said at Nets media day on Monday.
“[Get this] contract, get vaccinated or be unvaccinated and there’s a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you’re going to be in this league, whether you’re going to be on this team, so I had to deal with that real-life circumstance of losing my job for this decision,” he added.
Irving made it clear that it was his vaccination status that threw a wrench into his contract talks, and Nets GM Sean Marks confirmed that is exactly how it happened.