Some NBA Players Proving to be Bad Teammates

The narcissists who make up the 15% of unvaccinated NBA players are fools.

Astonishingly, grown men with straight faces argued in defiance of evidence and reason to their peers and league officials that a vaccine mandate in place to protect them is a “nonstarter,” as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

Whatever pseudoscience and rubbish about civil liberties cited by the governing minority as a reason to avoid the vaccine should be treated with ridicule. These players are not smarter than the doctors who have risked their lives helping create an antidote for the world’s plague that has claimed the lives of 4.6 million people.

I want to extend my pity to the level-headed gentlemen who tried to help these men see the light because they, too, lost significant brain cells in this failed crusade.  The small group has shown that they are incapable of self-reflection and being counted on by their contemporaries in dire circumstances.

The “personal choice” this small faction of union members has taken, whoever they are, is to live in willful ignorance. Yet, I doubt their bubble is blissful.  These rejects will have a different experience in-season than those who are fully vaccinated due to the league protocols.

Referees, and all team personnel within 15 feet or less of the athletes, have to be fully vaccinated for next season.  Everyone in the NBA is doing their part to ensure a safer working environment, except for the thoughtless camp.

The league will not give COVID tests to vaccinated players in the same high frequency as those who aren’t, per Shams Charania of the Athletic.  The minority are at greater risk of hindering their teams through missed time if a test returns positive or if they come into close contact with someone who is because that forces the unvaxed athlete into a week of isolated shelflife.  Fully vaccinated players will not have to quarantine over close contact with someone positive for coronavirus. 

These specific guidelines ensure that another debacle, like when Nets forward Kevin Durant was removed from a game against the Toronto Raptors, twice in one night, over close contact with someone with a positive test, cannot occur again for those who were wise enough to vaccinate.  Only the careless will fall victim to that this year.  

Imagine sharing a foxhole with someone who only thinks of themself. It’s not fair to those who did the right thing and embraced the team mentality of thinking of their fellow man.  The dudes who did not vaccinate are bad teammates.