Kyrie Irving will officially pay a hefty price for missing games in his local market

Kyrie Irving is backed into a corner. The presumably unvaccinated guard will not just be precluded from playing in all regular season home games missed, which would amount to all 41, including two games played at Madison Square Garden, but he would forgo his game check entirely.

NBA announces that players who do not comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for the games they miss pic.twitter.com/VpRG4BjFBb

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 29, 2021

Irving is due $33.3 million this year and would relinquish part of that for refusing to comply with New York City mandates and the newly imposed NBA penalty that will dock players pay.

The NBA is playing hardball with regards to vaccine requirements and while the NBAPA has rebuffed the idea of a vaccine mandate, this course of action by the league is forcing its players' hands.

Irving hasn't ruled out the idea of joining his teammates for activities in Brooklyn at some point, but the latest step by the NBA has drawn a line in the sand.

Things will get very interesting from here on out, because we'll see if Irving stays steadfast in his anti-vaccine beliefs or whether the hefty price he'll have to pay will be enough to convince him to comply with local vaccine mandates in New York.