Unvaccinated NBA players could be sidelined in some markets in 2021-22 season

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

As the 2020-21 NBA regular season was winding down, one team fighting for playoff positioning realized it had a problem. 

A number of its players had declined to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots. The team was worried that an outbreak could derail its postseason hopes.

Team executives began setting up meetings aimed at swaying the unvaccinated players. They provided data outlining the scientific benefits to them as individuals and to their families as well as information regarding the safety of the vaccine. 

That didn’t work. 

Next, the team tried dangling the NBA’s updated and more relaxed COVID protocols, which made life easier for vaccinated players. They faced fewer tests, had fewer restrictions and, crucially, were not required to quarantine after an exposure to the virus. 

The unvaccinated players still didn’t budge. 

Finally, the team tried appealing to the players’ self-interests. There was money to be made in the postseason, it told the players, whether via playoff bonuses, contract incentives, or by flourishing under the spotlight and burnishing their respective reputations. 

That pitch didn’t work, either. The team finished the season with less than 70% of its players vaccinated. 

"We tried everything," a staff member from that team told FOX Sports. "None of it mattered."

Now, with the 2021-22 regular season just a month away and players returning to their local markets for training camp next week, a number of NBA organizations find themselves confronting similar challenges, only with more urgency. 

The combination of new league protocols and more stringent local regulations could create an environment in which vaccine hesitancy becomes an issue that impacts on-court results.

In other words, the final standings this season could very well be impacted by the vaccination status of players. 

The NBA, according to a league spokesman, believes that around 85% of its players are currently vaccinated; National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts put the number at 90% during a July interview with Yahoo Sports. Those numbers are about 10-to-15% more than the overall rate of American adults who are vaccinated. 

But that still means that somewhere between 50 and 70 NBA players remain unvaccinated, an average of more than two per squad. Depending on how those players are grouped, what city they play in, and how good they are, it’s clear that any team entering the season with low vaccination rates will be at a competitive disadvantage.

Take, for example, the current rules in New York City and San Francisco. 

In a Sept. 1 memo, which was obtained by FOX Sports, the NBA informed its teams that, due to local vaccination requirements, unvaccinated members of the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors would be prohibited from playing or practicing in their home arenas "without providing proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption." (The regulation does not apply to visiting players.)

That would mean that any player on one of those rosters who refused vaccination would miss all 41 of his team’s home games unless he received one of these approved exemptions.

One player who could be affected is Nets guard Kyrie Irving. According to multiple league sources, Irving has yet to receive a vaccine shot. Both the Nets and a spokeswoman for Irving declined to comment on the record about Irving’s vaccination status, but Nets general manager Sean Marks was asked during a news conference on Tuesday whether New York City’s mandate could sideline any of his team’s players. 

"Regarding if they could play today, I can't comment on who could play and so forth. There would obviously be a couple people missing from that picture," Marks said. "I won't get into who it is, but we feel confident in the following several days before camp everybody would be allowed to participate and so forth."

Earlier in the news conference, Marks said: "I think we all understand what’s at stake. We’ve had very candid conversations. … We don’t see whether it’s a citywide mandate, or it’s the league mandate to follow, being any sort of hindrance to us being able to put out a team."

There’s also the Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins, who told reporters in March that he didn’t anticipate getting vaccinated "any time soon" and, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, has refused to change his stance. The Warriors declined to comment, and Wiggins’ agent didn’t reply to multiple emails. 

Meanwhile, Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle was non-committal when asked in a recent interview with SNY whether he thought Knicks players missing games due to vaccination status could be an issue. 

"I'm not sure if there's going to be an issue or not. I haven't thought about it," Randle said. "Everybody has their own preferences on what they should do or not, or what’s safe or not. And I get it, I understand it. I get both sides." 

The NBA isn’t taking measures as drastic as in New York City and San Francisco, but it has made clear that it intends to implement rules that encourage unvaccinated players to get vaccinated. 

In another memo from earlier this month (also obtained by FOX Sports), the league outlined its "anticipated health and safety protocols." These called for a mandatory seven-day quarantine period for unvaccinated players who come in contact with the virus. Depending on a team's schedule, that could result in as much as a four-game absence. 

Vaccinated players, on the other hand, could avoid quarantine with a negative test result. 

The rules are not yet final, as the league and NBPA are still negotiating COVID protocols for the upcoming season. One sticking point appears to be whether the league could mandate vaccines for its players. Shots will be required for NBA referees, as well as for all team personnel who work within 15 feet of players or referees during games. 

The NBPA, however, has "refused to budge on its demand that players not be required to take the vaccine, and any proposal that mandates vaccination remains a ‘non-starter,’" according to a recent report from ESPN. 

"I personally support vaccination; I took it," Roberts told Yahoo Sports in July. But, she added, "Frankly, there are some very strong opinions among our guys about taking it or not." And, she said, "I wouldn't stutter when it came to supporting a player that I know has not been vaccinated. That's his choice."

The league's memos, which also state that a player who misses games "as a result of his inability to comply with local law might subject him to a reduction of his compensation by the NBA or his team," have changed some minds, according to league sources. 

But multiple agents have said in interviews that they’re having trouble convincing their remaining holdouts. 

"We work for the players," one said. "And they all have different reasons. But if they’re hell-bent on not getting it, there’s only so much you can do." 

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.