Will NBA make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory to play?
Some players, coaches raise questions about whether league can make it mandatory.
The prominent NBA coach has become increasingly impressed with the league’s health and safety protocols to mitigate risk with the coronavirus. Therefore, 76ers coach Doc Rivers sounded just as comfortable with taking a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available.
“Because I trust it. I’m not a conspiracist right now,” Rivers said. “Obviously you want it to be done right. You’re hoping that all the things that should have been done have been done by the FDA and everybody else. But I have no problem taking it.”
A key NBA player tested positive for COVID-19 this year, leaving him further educated on the virus and the time it takes to recover from it. Yet Pacers forward Myles Turner sounded apprehensive about the vaccine.
“I’ve had the antibodies. We’re getting tested on the regular. So I’m doing whatever it takes to keep myself as safe as possible,” Turner said. “But as far as the vaccination, I personally don’t roll with the first round of things. I’d like to see how things roll out.”
Another key player has parents who worked in the medical field. So while he takes the pandemic seriously, Lakers center Marc Gasol also is considering when exactly the vaccine will become available for the NBA.
“There’s people right now that need the vaccine more than what we do,” Gasol said. “We are very fortunate to be in a very safe environment. Statistically, the virus doesn’t affect a 35-year-old male as much as it affects other people that are more at risk and more vulnerable to the virus.
“I would prefer the vaccine goes to people that need it the most instead of us. That to me is just common sense.”
Will vaccine become mandatory?
Yet it is not clear how the NBA will oversee a leaguewide distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, but it’s unlikely the process will be imminent.
Although the FDA authorized a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, distribution in the United States began Monday.
The league has mostly focused on starting its regular season next week and mitigating the risk of infection with daily COVID-19 testing and sanitary conditions as well as enforcing mask wearing and social distancing rules.
But the league’s 158-page health and safety protocols say the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association plan to discuss whether it is mandatory or voluntary for participants to take the vaccine once infectious disease special
ists advise that an FDA-approved vaccine “is safe and effective.” Suns general manager James Jones said the team won’t require players to take the vaccine but that depends on what the NBA and the NBPA determine.
“We’ll address that when it comes as far as a union and players,” said Suns guard Chris Paul, the president of the NBPA. “But when it comes to all different types of vaccines, a lot of that stuff is personal.”
Consider the NBA’s stance on the flu vaccine. In the league’s health and safety protocols, the NBA said all participants and their household members have to be given the “option to receive the flu vaccine and strongly recommend they receive” it. Any team has the right to require any declining participants to complete “an education program on the benefits of the flu vaccine.”
Still, the NBA does not require players to take it.
Should the NBA make it a requirement, though, for participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccine? The pandemic has killed more people than the annual flu.
After overseeing zero positive cases among players, coaches and staff members in a quarantined site near Orlando, Florida, last summer, could the NBA argue requiring COVID-19 vaccinations would help ensure its infection rate stays low while teams travel and play in empty home arenas?
“I don’t know about mandatory,” said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. “The NBA will certainly research it thoroughly. I think coming off the success of Orlando and
all that, I don’t think there is any reason to question the data that they come up with because they research everything very thoroughly. But personally, I’ll take the vaccine.”
Concern about taking COVID-19 vaccine
Carlisle has made that decision partly because his wife is an infectious disease doctor. Others, however, say they need more information before committing, including Kings forward Harrison Barnes and coach Luke Walton, Raptors forward OG Anunoby and Suns coach Monty Williams.
“As a father, I can’t just put anything in my body that will keep me from being the best father I can be. So I got to study more,” Williams said. “But I also trust the people that we have in the league. Once they give us the information that we need, as it relates to taking the vaccine, if it’s something that I’m comfortable with, I’ll do it. But I haven’t received that yet. So it’s hard to make that assessment.”
The reason for some of the skepticism? Most kept their views private.
But Rivers anticipated why others in the league do not feel as comfortable with taking the vaccine as he does.
“Let’s be honest. I understand the suspicion as well, especially being a Black man and The Tuskegee Institute,” Rivers said. “We don’t forget stuff like that.”
From 1932 to 1972 a governmentbacked Tuskegee Syphilis Study took place in Macon County, Alabama, where Black men were told they were receiving free medical care. In reality, they were denied treatment for syphilis.
“I’m a guy that don’t really take any vaccines. I try to stay away from a lot of medicine,” Jazz forward Derrick Favors said. “But I don’t really have an answer for that one right now. It’s a big thing going on with the news and obviously with the COVID situation. So I don’t want to say anything out of line. But for me personally, I’m a type of person that stays away from that kind of stuff.” Other players appear more trusting. “If the league says we have to take it, I have no problem with it,” Suns center Deandre Ayton said. “If we have to take it, we have to take it. I can’t stop any of that. It’s out of my control. I don’t think they would give us anything to hurt us.”
Even so, concerns persist. After suspending the season in mid-March during the beginning of the pandemic, the NBA fielded criticism for testing its players regularly when the general public struggled to receive testing.
As USA TODAY Sports reported, an Oklahoma State Department of Health official said that 58 people from the Jazz or with connections to the team were tested after center Rudy Gobert became the first known NBA player to test positive for COVID-19.
Some NBA teams later paid for tests on the private market, while others refused to test anyone who did not have symptoms.
When the NBA resumed its season on a quarantined site, it paid for the daily COVID-19 tests through BioReference Laboratories. The league also launched a community testing program that it said provided thousands of PCR tests for free in all 30 teams markets through August. Therefore, it appears likely the NBA will remain sensitive to public perception as the vaccine becomes more widely available.
“I always wonder are we skipping the line?” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. “It’s a delicate balance because ultimately we have people on the front-line putting their necks on the line every single day. This is basketball. This is a game that I love and I have a passion for, but I just want to make sure that the people that deserve a test or are more deserving of receiving a vaccine get them way before I do.”
The NBA does not have to wrestle with these questions just yet. Perhaps later in the season, though, it will.
In the meantime, the league’s 30 teams vowed to fight the virus another way.
“We’ll do whatever we can to make sure we keep our guys healthy and safe and administer it if and when we can for those that want it,” Jones said. “But our best course of action is to continue to adhere to the NBA’s protocols, to isolate as much as we can, maintain distance and perform and exhibit good hygiene.”