Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins is reportedly still refusing to get vaccinated despite a local mandate prohibiting unvaccinated Golden State players from playing home games.
In Brooklyn, where a similar regulation is in place throughout New York City, Nets star Kyrie Irving is also apparently unvaccinated.
Nets general manager Sean Marks acknowledged a couple of Brooklyn players are unvaccinated but expressed confidence everyone will be allowed to participate by the time the Nets training camp returns to New York (they are opening camp in San Diego for the first week, where there are no such mandates, and play their first preseason game against the Lakers in Los Angeles).
We’ll see.
Irving is a conspiracy theorist. He got fined last season for violating the NBA’s coronavirus protocols by partying maskless indoors. Afterward, he talked about prioritizing what’s important.
Marks also said the Nets had positive conversations with Irving about a contract extension. But as much as Brooklyn caters to its stars, it’s hard to see the team giving Irving a max extension while he chooses to be unavailable for practices and home games. In fact, Irving would jeopardize his $34,916,200 salary, though the players’ union has successfully fought against the NBA implementing a vaccine mandate. A trade to a team in a market without a vaccine mandate is probably a non-starter.
Hopefully, Irving just chooses to get vaccinated.
The vaccines have shown to be safe. Vaccinated people are less likely to contract and spread coronavirus. If they have an unlikely breakthrough infection, vaccinated people are less likely to have severe outcomes.
