Personal Choices
The NBA season is about a month away, and the big topic right now is nothing to do with basketball. Well nothing directly to do with it. Unlike almost everyone else associated with the NBA (coaches, referees, arena staff etc), the players have managed to avoid having a vaccine mandate going into the 2021 season.
It’s a minority view among the players, around 90% are vaccinated now. But it’s one with some influential voices in the players’ association. And one that is now causing a lot of problems, especially due to the fact that several cities require people to be fully vaccinated to attend basketball games. Including players on the home team (For San Francisco at least this weirdly excludes the opposing team).
There are several teams, including my own Golden State Warriors, with key players who will be unable to play in home games if they continue holding out against being vaccinated. Today was NBA media day, which gave these players an opportunity to share their reasons for continuing to hold out against a safe vaccine for a deadly disease. One that has hit multiple other players hard, and one which multiple players have lost family to.
So what did they give as reasons? Well, not much. There was a lot of talk of it being a personal decision and a private decision. Even many of the players who have been vaccinated, some of them visibly frustrated, framed it that way. Despite the fact it’s a decision that potentially sinks the teams’ chances of making the playoffs, not to mention putting other players and team staff at risk. Team staff, who are mandated to be vaccinated, are already furious in private at having to work with unvaccinated players that increase the risk to them and their families.
Teams and teammates are reluctant to criticise these players openly for fear of exacerbating the rift. But the growing rifts are evident. Leaks coming out of teams attempting to convince the holdouts. Golden State organised their holdout, Andrew Wiggins, to meet with a local doctor who has seen the devastating effects of Covid first hand, and dealt with vaccine hesitancy. It didn’t work. Some holdouts on the Minnesota Timberwolves were convinced by a plea from their teammate who has lost his mother and 5 other family members to Covid. Many of the players who have been vaccinated have cited wanting to protect their family, and not bring Covid home to them. It’s hard to see them being happy with playing with teammates that increase that risk.
So why do I mention all of this? Well I’m an NBA fan and it’s crippling the team I support right now. But more importantly this is something we are going to face as we start opening back up to the world, and some holdouts remain unvaccinated. Vaccination is not just a personal choice, it helps protect the people around you. Chances are you work with someone who themselves is vulnerable or who has a vulnerable family member. Is it a right that those people be put at risk because you are unvaccinated? Of course not. The vaccine is not 100% effective but it both reduces the likelihood of infection and transmitted. The more people are vaxxed, the safer we all are.
It also illustrates how entrenched some of these views are. Even when faced with upset teammates, furious teams and the loss of millions of dollars salary for missing games, some people will still dig in their heels. Maybe it also gives us a clue on how many hesitant people can be reached – by emphasising it protects their families, by hearing from people who have lost family, and yes by mandates if it comes down to it. There’s some people that still won’t reach though, and that’s something we’re going to have to face.
