The National Basketball Association won’t hand any strict requirements regarding COVID-19 vaccine amongst players and personnel for the 2022-2023 season.
As reported by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! Sports, the league is not planning to place a vaccine mandate in the upcoming basketball campaign. As such, they strongly suggest all to be up to date with available vaccinations, and all players that didn’t opt to receive the medical shot could be a subject of periodic testing, pending discussions with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).
Last season, the NBA referred to the vaccine rulings of the participating cities and localities, which placed unvaccinated cagers in stricter restrictions.
Almost all of the players within the association are fully vaccinated and have taken their booster shots. Meanwhile, the minority obviously remains skeptical on taking shots which includes Philadelphia 76ers wing Matisse Thybulle and notably Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets.
Irving became a subject of discussion and controversy from last year due to his personal stand and belief in taking a COVID vaccine jab. His unavailability to play due to New York’s mandate perhaps costed the Nets’ title hopes – pushing James Harden in requesting to be traded as they also finished as a conference seventh seed heading to the postseason. They were swept by the eventual East champ Boston Celtics in the first round.
Most states within the United States have already lifted their vaccine mandate. Meanwhile, Canada remains stringent and requires entering players to be vaccinated
