DURANT MUST CHILL, LEAVE THE KYRIE MANDATE TO THE MAYOR

Pressure to lift New York City’s vaccine mandate will be louder after Irving’s 60-point eruption, but his teammate is doing him no favors by blasting Eric Adams and ignoring the bigger health picture

     Sometimes, recalling the heavenly moment he shared with his mother during a powerful MVP ceremony, you wonder who ultimately hijacked Kevin Durant’s frontal lobe. I interviewed him years ago for a half-hour in a Santa Monica hotel lobby, convinced he’d be an ambassador for a sport and a league until his dying day.

     Now, I speak for many basketball aficionados who once again want to deadbolt his mouth and hide his dumbphone. KD, formerly among the most esteemed initials in sports, still stands for Kooky Dude. Only months after assuming the Captain America role at the Tokyo Olympics, where he padded his all-time pedigree as a scorer-on-demand, Durant has abandoned what should be a comfortable, mature and care-free existence at 33 — sports superstar, media entrepreneur, philanthropist, valiant role model for how to overcome a devastating injury — and moved back into his second residence.

     A delusional loft in Foolville.

     Or Lie-beca, a nod to his standing as a prominent New Yorker who has prioritized the postseason future of his Brooklyn Nets over the well-being of a metropolis in a still-ongoing pandemic. As most souls know by now, in a storyline that induces more nausea than intrigue, Durant’s would-be partner in NBA title crime, Kyrie Irving, still isn’t vaccinated for the coronavirus. And because Irving is considered a worker within New York City’s private sector, he is banned from playing home games at Barclays Center, though opposing players who aren’t vaccinated are allowed to play — and though Irving was allowed to sit at courtside, entering the building in a long off-white peacoat, and watch the Nets beat the Knicks with family members and pals Sunday.

     Durant’s response? Rip the mayor.

     The frustration over Irving’s part-time status is palpable, sure to swell after he scored a career-high 60 points Tuesday night — a mind-blowing 41 in the first half — in a 150-108 stomping of the Magic in Orlando. It’s a reminder of what the Nets can be, serious championship contenders, if Durant and Irving ever are permitted to play together uninterrupted. Like Aaron Rodgers, Irving is channeling his anti-vaxx crusade in his on-court performances, tapping his heart as Orlando fans chanted “Kyrie! Kyrie!’’ This came two days after Durant scored 53, making them the first teammates in NBA history to post back-to-back 50-plus games.

     “It just shows we’re on our way to history,’’ Irving said. “Making history, man, making history. And doing it with that guy (Durant) is very special. But credit goes to our group. It’s just how close we are. Our guys in our locker room, they really believe in us, they really rock with us. There’s no doubt in our mind that we can do something special. And not just this year but for years to come.’’

     Feeling the moment, he dropped the name of his idol, Kobe Bryant, when discussing some of his wild heaves. “Ah, I don't usually shoot these type of shots, but I'm just going to get in my Kobe bag real quick and live with the results. Triple-team coming at me, and I just looked over at the coaches and they were just like, "Keep playing …,’’ Irving said. “When you’re a kid scoring a bunch of points, it means something. But when you’re in the best league in the world, doing it against the greatest athletes, it means a little bit more, and that competition level just comes out of me.’’

     Soon enough, Irving was waxing philosophical about the reality of his self-made predicament. Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are at Barclays on Wednesday night, and Kyrie won’t be in uniform. “It’s not the best feeling in the world. There’s a little awkwardness,” said Irving, who appreciated the warm reception in Florida, an anti-vaxx hotbed. “I mean, my faith in things turning around hasn’t changed. It hasn’t wavered. I know it (gets) tiresome for my teammates, tiresome for people in the organization. I just commend all of us for just really making a choice to come closer together and just deal with this, man; we’re dealing with it face-on. So whatever is going on outside of what we can control, that’s what happens. But what we can (control) is just showing up every day and knowing that we’re all sacrificing something to be here.’’

     If Durant is the renaissance man he aspires to be, he should squarely grasp that COVID-19 has killed almost 1 million Americans and infected almost 80 million. Case numbers are in rapid decline, creating hope that normalcy soon will be completely upon a nation weary of vaccine debates. But the mayor of the country’s largest city, Eric Adams, wisely refuses to engage in favoritism. He isn’t ready to lift the mandate for Irving and other unvaccinated New York athletes — including Yankees and Mets players — at the expense of employees impacted by the rule at 180,000-plus businesses in the five boroughs.

     Does it make sense that visiting, non-vaxxed athletes can play and Irving cannot? No. If the mandate issue had been thought out sensibly by Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, all athletes would have been banned. When NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the rule “doesn’t quite make sense,’’ Adams agreed — but also said he won’t “send mixed messages’’ to the population at large. So, Irving remains a part-timer as the league’s play-in tournament approaches, possibly to involve the Nets as soon as April 12. This is not how Durant, when he fled a Golden State dynasty to pair with Irving, envisioned his Empire State of Mind. James Harden soured on the Big Three farce, tiring of Irving’s stance, and was traded for Ben Simmons, who claims to be happier in Brooklyn after his clinical depression in Philadelphia but has yet to suggest when — or if — he’ll suit up for game action.

    All of which led Durant to fire a verbal fusillade at Adams, calling him out by name Sunday. “It's ridiculous. I don't understand it at all,’’ he said. “There's a few people in our arena that's unvaxxed, right? They lifted all of that in our arena, right? So, yeah, I don't get it ... I don't get it. It just feels like at this point, somebody's trying to make a statement or a point to flex their authority. But everybody out here is looking for attention and that's what I feel like the mayor wants right now, is some attention. But he'll figure it out soon. He’d better.’’

     He’d better? Was Kooky Dude threatening the mayor? Was this an episode of “Billions’’ or something?

     “It just didn't make any sense,’’ Durant rambled on. “There's unvaxxed people in this building already. We got a guy who can come in the building, I guess, are they fearing our safety? I don't get it. We're all confused. Pretty much everybody in the world is confused at this point. Early on in the season people didn't understand what was going on, but now it just looks stupid. So hopefully, Eric, you’ve got to figure this out.’’

     Nor did Durant care that Irving joined his teammates in the locker room at intermission, a no-no that cost the Nets a $50,000 league fine. He just was thrilled to see Irving in their home crib, thinking his presence could create political leverage.

     “Hopefully it gets figured out,’’ Durant said. “Eric, you gotta figure out something, man, because it’s looking crazy, especially on national TV. And he can come to the game but can’t play? Come on. Hey, yo, Eric.”

     Hey, yo, Kevin. Would you mind researching the COVID-19 topic before mocking a mayor who is trying to prevent people from being hospitalized … or dying? If Adams hasn’t succumbed to pressure by now from a multi-billion-dollar league, in a city filled with crazy fans, don’t expect him to relent for a while. He was heckled during an appearance in Brooklyn, during a groundbreaking ceremony for a playground, and his comeback was quick and spot on.

     “Listen, you’re right. Kyrie can play tomorrow: Get vaccinated,” said Adams, flashing a thumbs-up gesture.

     After hearing from the Nets, the league, his agent and maybe his mother, Durant withdrew his sword and issued a statement. This is the modern athlete’s version of an apology, though it fell far short of a mea culpa. “The last two years have been a difficult and painful time for New Yorkers, as well as a very confusing time with the changing landscape of the rules and mandates,” Durant wrote. “I do appreciate the task the mayor has in front of him with all the city has been through. My frustration with the situation doesn’t change the fact that I will always be committed to helping the communities and cities I live in and play in.”

     I, for one, would like to see the Nets and Warriors play in the Finals. Talk about a media mashup, social and mainstream. Durant would be facing the team he fled, with supremacy at stake and Draymond Green sure to pepper him with trash-talk worse than his previous insult — “bitch.’’ Irving would be facing the team he beat with a jumper in the 2016 Finals, interrupting a Golden State title streak that would have reached four. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson should be in splash-brother unison by June.

    But at this point, to make that happen, Durant’s leadership is paramount. Rather than target the mayor, he must manage Irving’s mindset. “I think you can see that we're both in a nice little groove right now,’’ Durant said after Irving’s show. “We know this is a huge night for Ky, but he even said it coming into the locker room: ‘We've got more to do.’ I love that mentality, even on a special night like this.’’

     Said Irving, still reflecting: “If anything, missing time this season has taught me just to put things in perspective and not take anything in life for granted. Things that I love have been taken away from me and I’ve had to deal with it, just like everyone else. … So as you walk with faith then you know that there are going to be uncomfortable times and you just can’t have fear; and just be led by that, the energy of God and just let everything else fall into place.”

     As he spoke, more people were dying. Basketball can wait.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.