The new NBA season is less than a month away, and teams are now preparing for training camps to open next week. Preparations include - for the first time - having as many NBA players and personnel vaccinated as possible from COVID-19. Shams reported today that around 90% of NBA players have been fully vaccinated.
While the NBA does not have a league-wide policy for mandatory vaccinations, cities like San Francisco and NY are implementing rules which require players of their home teams (GSW, BKN and NYK) to be fully vaccinated in order to enter arenas and to play in home games. Players of visiting teams are exempted from these rules.
One player who has openly refused to get vaccinated is the Warriors' Andrew Wiggins. The SF Health Department has announced that players like Wiggins who are not vaccinated will not be able to play in the Chase Center even if they get a religious exemption from the NBA.
https://sports.yahoo.com/unvaccinated-andrew-wiggins-cant-play-home-games-even-if-he-gets-religious-exemption-from-nba-212836170.html Another player who is reportedly unwilling to be vaccinated is the Nets' Kyrie Irving.
https://sports.yahoo.com/kyrie-irving-reportedly-unvaccinated-could-212035968.htmlOn the other hand, NYK is one of two teams (the other being DET) with a 100% vaccination rate for players so far, according to the report.
It will be interesting to monitor this situation for the NBA teams affected in the coming weeks. Other teams presumably have players with vaccine hesitancy, and it's possible for their cities to approve similar rules for playing home games as the season progresses.