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The NBA is strongly incentivizing its players and other personnel to get fully vaccinated, as their COVID-19 protocols were updated Thursday that will require those who aren’t completely vaccinated to take far more precautions.
Shams Charania of The Athletic provided the latest details on the NBA’s updated COVID-19 health and safety protocols:
As many sports fans will recall, the NBA was the first major sports league to shut everything down, and they were also innovative in how they quickly put together the Orlando bubble so they could finish their 2019-20 season and ultimately have an NBA champion.
There are clear physical distancing guidelines in place for those in the NBA who aren’t vaccinated. It’s also noteworthy that those who do have the vaccine won’t have any restrictions placed on them when they’re away from team-related activities.
Because of these rules, it’ll be easy to distinguish who’s vaccinated and who isn’t as the 2021-22 NBA season gets closer. Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, who’s arguably still the face of the league, is reportedly unvaccinated, as are many Americans.
Related: NBA Power Rankings – Warriors and Celtics remain at the top after first wave of free agency
The NFL is putting in place similar policies to incentivize players and personnel to get the COVID-19 vaccine, even to the point of teams forfeiting games if they have an outbreak involving unvaccinated players. In some way, NBA teams are taking things even a step further.
It was reported Wednesday that the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets players will all require full vaccination to play. Visiting players and personnel to those New York City and San Francisco markets must be vaccinated. Otherwise, they’ll be prohibited to participate.
A clear competitive advantage exists for teams who are fully vaccinated, in terms of player availability and, likely, building camaraderie. For those who are in true championship contention — the Nets are expected to be real players for the NBA title — it’ll be interesting to see how they handle these new stipulations.