NBA News: Unvaccinated players in New York and San Francisco rumored to be restricted from home arenas
The NBA, like the rest of the world, is adapting to life alongside the COVID-19 virus. After spending the latter part of the 2019-20 season in the Disney World Bubble and then playing out a condensed 2020-21 calendar, the NBA is finalizing its plans for a vaccination mandate.
According to The Atheltic's Shams Charania, the NBA will require players to be compliant with any rules within their local markets.
As mentioned in Charania's tweet, any NBA players who have not been fully vaccinated will be declined access into their teams' facility or home arenas. Exemptions will stand, with players able to decline any vaccination on medical or religious grounds.
An important aspect to note is that for certain markets, visiting NBA teams and players are not required to be vaccinated. Because what's life without a little confusion? As things stand, only the home teams players will be governed by these rules in markets such as New York and San Francisco.
To explain this further, we can do an example. Imagine the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors are playing each other at Maddison Square Garden; the Knicks have two unvaccinated players, while the Warriors have 3 unvaccinated players. The Warriors would be able to field their full roster throughout the contest, but the Knicks would be without players who aren't vaccinated.
Players may no longer have a choice of whether or not to get vaccinated if they want to play
Up until now, it's been assumed it would be a player's choice to receive or decline the vaccine. However, it would seem that players will now need to comply with city guidelines if they wish to play home games. It's also unclear how teams will handle players who choose not to get vaccinated moving forward.
The situation looks fluid, as other local markets could change course during the season if their city sees a spike in infections. This means other NBA teams currently unaffected by this ruling could find themselves navigating the issue later down the line.
For the Warriors, one player who has previously spoken about not getting the vaccine is Andrew Wiggins. Previously, he told NBC Sports:
"I don’t really see myself getting it anytime soon, unless forced to, somehow.”
With still over a month to go until the NBA season gets underway, it remains to be seen how the NBA and the players association move forward following this rule announcement. But for now, it seems like the Knicks, Warriors and Nets will be the worst affected by the latest attempt to keep players and fans safe during game situations.