BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Anti-vaccination mandate protestors tried to storm the doors at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sunday.
The protestors at Barclays Center were there in support of Kyrie Irving. The Nets player has refused to get vaccinated. The team said Irving would not play or practice with them until he got the COVID vaccine jab.
"No vaccine mandate," protestors chanted, signs supporting Irving in hand.
A few dozen people were in the plaza outside the arena, some chanting “Let Kyrie play! Let Kyrie play!”
A small group even broke through barriers and got all the way to the front entrance of the arena about an hour before tipoff.
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Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates and in support of Kyrie Irving gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) -
Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) -
Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates and in support of basketball player Kyrie Irving gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) -
Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) -
Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) -
Protesters rallying against COVID-19 vaccination mandates and in support of basketball player Kyrie Irving gather in the street outside the Barclays Center before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Protester Curtis Orwell said he and others were fighting for “bodily autonomy and sovereignty," and the right to choose what goes in their bodies.
“We also know so much more than we knew 18 months ago about the virus," he said. "We have therapeutics that have been tried and proven to great success. Unfortunately, those kinds of voices are being totally suppressed and censored.”
Orwell said he was not vaccinated and knew some people who had lost jobs because they weren’t.
“It doesn’t feel right to them and that’s OK," he said. “We need to respect that.”
One of the attendees identified herself as a school teacher. She said she was out of a job because of the mandate.
"I have to stand up for me, I have to stand up for my son," she said.
There was a separate Staten Island protest on Sunday with municipal workers protesting the city's vaccine mandate.
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