NBA News: Kevin Durant Claims Kyrie Irving Is 'Frustrated' About Not Playing Home Games

With the NBA regular season coming to a close in about three weeks, Kyrie Irving still cannot play home games with the Brooklyn Nets due to the vaccine mandate, and Kevin Durant decided to stick up for his teammate.

Speaking with the media following their morning shootaround on Monday, Durant vented about Irving’s desire to play at home despite being unvaccinated.

“He's frustrated in not being able to play. He figured this stuff would be rolled back by now, we'd be way past this. But it's the situation we're in, we got to deal with it, he's got to deal with it. Trusting that it'll get figured out there soon,” Durant was quoted by ESPN’s Nick Friedell, as saying.

Irving has become a controversial figure in the sports world for his stance on not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and it has affected the Nets’ season, whether Durant and the Nets admit it.

The 2016 NBA champion has missed a big chunk of the season, mainly their home games, because of it, and their fall from being a top seed in the Eastern Conference to sticking around the play-in tournament picture has had fans theorizing whether it is a strategy.

If Brooklyn takes either the seventh or eighth seed going into the playoffs, the Nets have a better shot at having Irving available to play because of the number of road games.

While no one on the team is yet to confirm whether this is the plan, it certainly looks that way to outside observers.

Irving’s stance against the COVID-19 vaccine has been a hot topic for most of the NBA season, but Durant also revealed why the team has not yet decided to give up on him.

“We get that it may affect the outcome of some basketball games, but that's not the only reason why we love Kyrie as a person because [of] what he can bring to the court. I think overall him as a human being, we respect who he is, we respect the game on top of that,” Durant added.

Understandably, the Nets’ championship window draws even closer to shutting, with both Irving and the recently acquired Ben Simmons on the sidelines, though the four-time scoring champion remains hopeful they can make something out of it.

“I'm not guaranteeing that we got a championship, but I just like what we're building. And I'm not going to say this is the only year we've got an opportunity to fight and work towards something. I feel like we can just build on what we have and see what happens,” said Durant.

Having Irving and Simmons back, to a certain extent, will surely lessen the load that Durant and the rest of the team have to carry in their absence.

Durant knows more than most the difficulties in winning a championship. And if there is anyone on the Nets who can help carry them toward a potential NBA Finals appearance, it will be him doing most of the heavy lifting.