NYC Mayor Eric Adams defends vaccine exemption for athletes like Kyrie Irving: 'We have to be on the field in order to win in both the game of life'

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a tense press conference on Thursday.
• Adams announced a carve-out exempting home athletes and performers from the city's vaccine mandate.
• The mayor stressed the pre-existing policy put New Yorkers "at an unfair disadvantage."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams reversed a city policy on Thursday requiring all professional athletes in the city to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a tense press conference, Adams and other officials defended the move despite the Big Apple's vaccine requirement for all public employees remaining in place.

"Generals lead from the front," Adams said, referring to himself as "a war-time general" in the announcement at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets baseball team. "I was not elected to be fearful, but to be fearless."

The mayor described the city as a "low risk environment" for COVID-19, with a stable positivity rate under 2% on a 28 day rolling average and 13 hospitalizations on a 7 day rolling average, according to the latest public data.

"And just ask any player, some people were booers, but there are also those who will be employed and were cheerers," Adams said before formally announcing his executive order. "That is not only the game of baseball, but that's the game of life. And we have to be on the field in order to win in both the game of life."

Just two days prior, Adams said unvaccinated basketball and baseball players "would have to wait" as his administration continued to "follow the science."

Kyrie Irving, an unvaccinated star point guard for the New York Nets, has been the highest profile NYC athlete affected by the city's mandate enacted under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Irving has explained his reason for remaining unvaccinated as "not a political thing" and "about being true to what feels good for me." The 2014 league MVP and first overall draft pick in 2011, still enjoying the prime of his career at age 30, has only been able to play in away games for the Nets this season as the team struggles for playoff contention.

Adams also stressed in his press conference on Thursday that unvaccinated athletes from visiting teams have been able to play in New York venues such as Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

With Major League Baseball's opening day approaching on April 7, a similar situation to Irving's was emerging with New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who has refused to say whether he's been vaccinated.

"This is about putting New York City-based based performers on a level playing field," Adams said. "Hometown players had an unfair disadvantage."

The mayor said his team of medical professionals advised him to wait until case numbers lowered before allowing unvaccinated home athletes and performers to return to venues.

"Unimaginable, we were treating our performers differently because they lived and played for home teams," Adams said.

"Let's be clear about this," Adams said later. "I've said it and I will continue to say it: all of us should be vaccinated, even our players."