Multimillionaire NBA Players Afraid of Vaccine Shots, Demand Their Freedom!

 


A few players in the NBA are vaccine resisters.  According to an article in Rolling Stone, they are pushing their players' union to reject plans by the league to require them to get the jab.  

According to the story, during a recent teleconference the response from the players to the proposal was “Non-starter. Non-starter.” The group of COVIDiots rejecting the vaccines represents around ten percent of all players.  

One of them is apparently Kyrie Irving. I say "apparently" because he refuses to disclose his vaccination status, but that's as good as disclosing your non-vaccinated status.  

Mr. Irving makes around $34 million a year to throw a ball through a hoop. If I were paying someone that kind of money to do that work, you can be damn sure he'd either be vaccinated or be out of a job.

The twist in the plot is that sensible and well-governed cities like New York and San Francisco have established rules that nobody can enter an indoor sporting facility—teams or fans—without proof of vaccination. That means the unvaxxed players might be unable to play games in those cities.  

For Irving that means missing home games, and games in other cities that require proof of vaccination. I wonder if the Nets will be happy to fork over $34 million for him to play only a fraction of their games.

One sensible voice in this controversy is that of basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He is so right, it's worth quoting him at length:

The NBA should insist that all players and staff are vaccinated or remove them from the team. There is no room for players who are willing to risk the health and lives of their teammates, the staff and the fans simply because they are unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation or do the necessary research. What I find especially disingenuous about the vaccine deniers is their arrogance at disbelieving immunology and other medical experts. Yet, if their child was sick or they themselves needed emergency medical treatment, how quickly would they do exactly what those same experts told them to do?

In a New York minute, Kareem.

Image by Corona-zona


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