Kyrie Irving Makes Brooklyn Nets Return, Refuses to Address Alleged COVID-19 Violations Kyrie Irving is no longer the absentee Brooklyn Nets superstar that he was for the past seven games. He's so back and has a few words to say about all the time he stayed off the game. He even apologized to his fans, but not for the reason people expected him to. Some anticipated he would say something about his alleged COVID-19 violations and even reveal that these serve as the reason why he was gone for so long... but nada. Instead, after making his highly-anticipated return, he told his fans that he merely needed a pause. After having a break, he's very "happy" to be back, he said, as reported by TMZ.