After all the pushback and subsequent backing by his teammates, Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors will be able to play at the Warriors home arena after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Sunday, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told the media that Wiggins is now vaccinated, and will now be eligible to play in home games at Chase arena.
“Andrew got vaccinated,” Kerr said. “He just told me today that he was fine with us acknowledging it and that will be the end of it. I’m not going to answer any questions beyond that.”
Much has been made of Wiggins’ vaccination status after a contentious media day appearance in which he told reporters his decision was “none of your business.”
“It’s none of your business is what it comes down to,” Wiggins said on Monday when asked about his reasoning behind not getting the shot. “I don’t ask you guys what you think is right or wrong. We’re different people … Who are you guys where I have to explain what I believe? Or what’s right or what’s wrong in my mind. We’re two totally different people. What you think is not what I think. What I think is not what you think.”
Wiggins’ vaccination status was a big deal for the Warriors organization, as local San Francisco rules do not permit an unvaccinated professional athlete to play indoors.
On Wednesday, the NBA announced that any player who misses a game due to not being vaccinated will not be paid for the missed game.
The Warriors have 41 games at the Chase Center in San Francisco for the 2021-2022 season, meaning Wiggins potentially would have forfeited half of his games checks if he remained unvaccinated.
Draymond Green — the leader of the Warriors — passionately defended Wiggins in his first media appearance of training camp, saying that it wasn’t his place to tell Wiggins what to do with his body.
“For someone who’s not extremely into politics, when you make something so political — not everyone is into politics — then you can also turn those people off,” Green said. “There is something to be said for people concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard. Like ‘why are you pressing this so hard?’”
“You say we live in the land of the free. Well, you’re not giving anyone freedom because you’re making people do something essentially,” Green said later. “Without necessarily making them, you’re making them do something. That goes against everything that America stands for, or supposedly stands for.”
The NBA’s attention now turns to Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets, who declined to share his vaccination status in his media appearance via video.
New York has a similar vaccine mandate to San Francisco’s, and Irving could forfeit around $380,000 per game for each game missed.
The NBA regular season tips-off October 19.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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Source: Dailywire
