The NBA is taking a hard stance against unvaccinated players who play in markets that have vaccine mandates.
On Wednesday the NBA confirmed that players who miss games due to local vaccine mandates will not get paid.
In response to an inquiry about what will happen to players who miss games due to executive orders governing vaccinations in NYC & SF, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, “Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses.”
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) September 29, 2021
Currently, players who play for the Knicks, Nets, and Warriors will have to get vaccinated if they want to play in home games this season.
New York City and San Francisco have local vaccination requirements for Nets, Knicks and Warriors players to play in home games. https://t.co/YNUOCDIQnH
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 29, 2021
It was recently reported that both Kyrie Irving of the Nets and Andrew Wiggins of the Warriors have yet to be vaccinated which means they are in serious jeopardy of missing out games. Irving who makes $33 million a season could lose $428,000 in game checks for every home game he misses. Wiggins is set to lose $385,000 per home game missed if he refuses to get vaccinated.
Both Irving and Wiggins were unwilling to speak about why they refused to get vaccinated during their media days this week.
“Anything that has to do with my status, vaccination. I’m going to keep it personal and private.”
-Andrew Wiggins on his vaccination status pic.twitter.com/94GXaVGkMl
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) September 27, 2021
Kyrie: "I like to keep that stuff private. I’m a human being first…I would love to just keep that private and handle it the right way with my team & go forward with a plan
"I’m not able to be there today but I’m not putting any limits on being with the team going forward." https://t.co/SdHesb7fDf
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) September 27, 2021