Photo courtesy of Matt Sullivan/ Twitter.
ACCORDING TO ESPN, the NBA is refusing to pay basketball players who can’t play in New York and San Francisco due to COVID-19 protocols.
Mike Bass is the executive vice president of communications for the NBA. The VP announced on Sept. 29 that unvaccinated players forced from playing due to COVID protocols in New York City’s Barclay Center and San Francisco’s Chase Center would not be paid for the missed games.
The Barclay Center in New York City and the Chase Center in San Francisco require anyone entering the stadium to be fully vaccinated.
“Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” said Bass.
Associated Press reporter Tim Reynolds announced that all NBA players would be “surveillance tested” from Oct. 5 until Oct. 12.
“All NBA players, regardless of vaccination status, will be ‘surveillance tested’ between tomorrow and Oct. 12. From there, the NBA and NBPA will decide ‘whether to continue a surveillance testing program for fully-vaccinated players during the season.'”
On Sept. 28, Bass told reporters that the National Basketball Players’ Association would have to agree to the terms to force players to get fully vaccinated.
The entire New York Knicks organization, which includes every player and the staff, complies with New York City protocols and has been vaccinated. However, the protocols could be a problem for the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors.
Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors has said that his vaccination status is private, and he did not want to get vaccinated. Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving was also unvaccinated and wasn’t on the roster for the Barclay Center.
The NBA and players have butted heads on vaccination and COVID-19 protocols for some time, and people have speculated if Irving would have to miss home games because of his vaccination status. Matt Sullivan from Rolling Stone magazine posted about the conflict between the players and the NBA on Twitter on Sept. 25.
“Inside the NBA’s vaccine civil war: Will Kyrie skip home games? Has the league caved to players? Does one player even get how masks work? And what’s with that Moderna conspiracy theory in locker rooms?”
Irving would lose approximately $381,000 for every missed game should he decide to remain unvaccinated.
“Reporting with @BobbyMarks42: The NBA and the NBPA have agreed to a reduction in pay of 1/91.6th of a player’s salary for each game an unvaccinated player misses in their home market because of local laws. For example, Kyrie Irving would lose roughly $381,000 per game.”
After feeling pressured, Wiggins decided to get the vaccine and is now eligible for his games in San Francisco and on the road.
The NBA may also enforce plans to test players twice daily for COVID-19 on game days and mandate that unvaccinated players quarantine for seven days if they’ve been near someone testing positive for the virus.