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I’ll admit that much of the coronavirus vaccine news and the NBA focuses on the minority of players who have not received the coronavirus for various reasons, including Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal. So here is some positive news on that front. Ninety-five percent of NBA players are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The NBA and NBPA agreed on continuing stringent regulations for unvaccinated players this season. The opening news cycle of training camps focused on a few star players -- such as Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal -- who had come to camp unvaccinated. https://t.co/q8rvgjfnCy
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 30, 2021
This comes after a report last week by Shams Charania of The Athletic that 90 percent of players were fully vaccinated.
90 percent of NBA players are currently fully vaccinated, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Player vaccination rate has been rising as training camps open next week.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 23, 2021
This is good news for the NBA. It allows teams to operate as close as possible to the way things were in 2019 before the pandemic started. And in some cities, like New York and San Francisco, vaccines allow players to even play a game altogether. Perhaps in an effort to get players vaccinated, the NBA announced that unvaccinated players will not be paid for games they miss due to local restrictions.
But most importantly, the vaccines are helping slow down the spread of the coronavirus, which will ultimately help us head to a post-COVID-19 world sooner rather than later.
Some players who play for teams in New York City and San Francisco, like Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins could lose most of their pay this season if they choose not to get vaccinated by the start of the NBA season.
It is unclear whether Beal and/or Kyle Kuzma received a dose of the vaccine this week or plan to do so soon. At a minimum, Beal was confirmed to not be vaccinated at the start of training camp earlier this week. We will find out soon enough if or when they miss games due to certain road trips, or if the D.C. government places restrictions on professional athletes like New York City and San Francisco have.
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