Blog Post #1 – Vaccine Mandate for NBA Players
Josh Childers
Dr. Clinton Jenkins
Intro to American Government
10 March 2022
Blog Post #1 – Vaccine Mandate for NBA Players
In March 2020, the coronavirus first arrived in the United States. It resulted in employees going home, schools closing, and sports cancelling their seasons. Among these sports that could not finish their seasons due to covid was the NBA. Since then, things have gradually begun to get closer to being normal again. One factor that helped speed up the return to normalcy was the development of a vaccine. However, the vaccine did lead to controversy over whether or not it is fair to have vaccine mandates. Vaccine mandates are laws that require employees to show proof of vaccination in order to be able to work in person. People began to debate whether it is ethical to require someone to either get the vaccine or lose their job.
One organization that ultimately did not end up requiring its employees to receive the coronavirus vaccine was the National Basketball Association. Well… kind of. The NBA required all its employees except for the players to receive the vaccine. It would have been very difficult for the NBA to require vaccination from its players because the majority of its players are irreplaceable. If players were to refuse to get the vaccine, and therefore not play in the league, the NBA’s product would suffer as fans would be unhappy about not seeing some of their favorite players on the court. I support the NBA’s decision because I believe it should be the individual’s right to choose what is best for themselves.
Despite the NBA’s decision, it is still being impacted by vaccine mandates. A few cities and states are requiring that people who work in-person must provide proof of vaccination to work at their workplace. This includes NBA players who play for teams in those areas. One popular example of this is Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is one of the best players in the NBA and plays for the Brooklyn Nets in New York. He is also unvaccinated. According to NYC Health, “Workers in New York City who perform in-person work or interact with the public in the course of business must show proof that they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.” This means that Irving cannot play in home games. What makes this situation even more interesting is that away teams who come to play in these cities or states are not required to show proof of vaccination, so unvaccinated players can play. While this issue only affects a small number of NBA players, it is still bad for the NBA to have notable players, like Irving, sitting out of games. Also, if players like Irving have refused to get the vaccine despite not being able to play in home games, then it is unlikely that they would give in if the league were to put a vaccine mandate into effect.
I believe that the players should be able to choose whether or not they receive the vaccine. It should be the individual’s right to evaluate what is best for themselves. However, I understand why some would believe that a mandate is the better choice. If the vaccine can slow the spread of the virus, then it could help to end this pandemic sooner. It could also help to prevent games from being cancelled. In 2020, the NBA lost 1.5 billion dollars in revenue when they had to cancel the rest of its season. The next season, the NBA made the decision to have games without allowing fans to attend. Not only did the NBA lose money during these seasons, but the owners also took huge losses. Therefore, if we look at the situation from a financial point of view it makes sense to do whatever it takes to have the games and to have fans at the games, even if it means requiring players to get vaccinated. The only problem with this is that only eleven games have been postponed this year. Considering that an NBA season has 1230 games in each season, this is a very small number. In fact, they might lose even more money from not having several players play than they would from having a few games postponed. These players would also lose out on a lot of money, so it would be detrimental for both sides.
There are really just two options for the NBA in this situation: require players to receive the vaccine or do not. If they require the vaccine, the virus might spread slower and fewer games would have to be postponed; however, this could also result in several players choosing not to play in the NBA. If they do not require the vaccine, a few games might have to be postponed, but their product would still be optimal. The best option is to not require the vaccine from its players because it is no longer having to postpone many games and all of its players would continue to play.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccine-workplace-requirement.page