NBA says unvaccinated players will not be paid for game that they miss

If you wanna get the cash, you gotta get the vax.

Source: Jonathan Daniel / Getty

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not athletes should be forced to get the COVID-19 vaccine in order to play in the upcoming 2021-2022 season. Per usual, Kyrie Irving’s take on the situation is one that many find troublesome to say the least. According to ESPN, during an interview at media day, Irving refused to publicly state his vaccination status saying that he, “would like to keep all that private.”

Fair enough but anyone who has heard anything that Kyrie Irving has said over the past two years could probably take a good educated guess on where he stands. Today, the NBA has made it unequivocally clear where they stand on the issue.

“Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” Mike Bass, the NBA’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement Wednesday morning.

At this time, both New York and San Francisco have state sanctioned mandates that require vaccination for competition. This puts at risk players on The Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and Brooklyn Nets. To be fair, we’re positive that many other players exactly like Kyrie. Hell, even LeBron James’ reticence toward the vaccine was publicly noted. So much, in fact, that yesterday LeBron finally confirmed that he is fully vaccinated but explained that he won’t be using his voice to push the agenda according.

“We’re talking about individuals’ bodies,” LeBron said “We’re not talking about something that’s political, or racism, or police brutality. Things of that nature. We’re talking about people’s bodies and well being.”

We can only imagine what’s being said in team group chats right now about the way the NBA is going to handle COVID-19 this season.

Where do you stand? Do you think it’s wrong of the NBA to dock pay for players who are anti-vaxxers?