The NBA and NBPA have agreed that unvaccinated players who can’t play in games due to local governmental vaccine mandates will be docked 1/91.6th of their salaries for each game missed, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Bobby Marks, and Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Typically, when a player is suspended, he loses 1/145th of his salary per game or 1/110th of his salary per game if the suspension exceeds 20 games, so this penalty is a little harsher than that. It appears that last season’s fine for games missed due to COVID-19 protocol violations was used as a guideline for determining this rate — missing a game during last year’s 72-game season for violating COVID-19 protocols cost a player 1/81.6th of his salary.
For now, New York and San Francisco are the two primary municipalities worth monitoring, since each city has a vaccine mandate for individuals entering indoor venues. The Knicks are reportedly fully vaccinated and Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins recently became vaccinated as well. That leaves Nets guard Kyrie Irving as perhaps the lone unvaccinated player on the three teams based in those cities — it’s possible he’s not the only one, but no others have been reported to date.
Irving’s cap hit for the 2021/22 season is just over $35MM, so he’d lose about $383K per home game if he remains unvaccinated and can’t play in Brooklyn.
Those executive orders in New York and San Francisco aren’t expected to apply to unvaccinated visiting players, who will receive an exemption. The one exception would be Nets vs. Knicks games — since both teams are based in New York, they’d both presumably be subject to local restrictions.
As we noted last week when we first wrote that players would lose salary for games missed due to local vaccine mandates, it was also crucial to determine whether a player’s lost salary would reduce his team’s tax bill for the season, since the Nets and Warriors are both far over the tax line. However, according to Marks (Twitter link), teams won’t receive any tax savings for any players who miss games due to vaccine mandates.
I think you all should stop giving Wiggs the hate Kyrie should be getting.
Easy for bullies to pick on Kyrie, perhaps the hate could go for Beal… that would make a change actually, right?
“Bullies” lol. Que mierdas.
Although I do agree Beal has been flying too much under the radar relatively speaking.
Your move Kyrie!!!!
Good I don’t get paid if I don’t go to work so they shouldn’t get paid either. Too bad we don’t do the same for politicians.
Theres a difference between you calling out sick and them being forced to miss work even if theyre not sick. Imagine supporting healthy people who arent sick getting punished.
Also, vaccinated and unvaccinated who get sick from playing, both can spread the virus is a work related issue. So not sure why only unvaccinated are punished.
Vaccine reduces the risk of catching covid and therefore spreading. Not to mention, you know, dramatically reducing the risk of death in case you gor covid
Unless you get blood clots from the vaccine . Then you die pretty shortly after
A risk many young people are hesitant to take
The issue with blood clots was basically one in a million, it was limited to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and it only affected women over 50.
It amazes me the amount of misinformation and flat out lies that the anti-vaxxers pull out of their collective buttocks.
i agree with u lloyd only the jj vaccine may or may not give u blood clots the other vaccines are ok
They aren’t testing vaccinated players, employees, or individuals. Many places of employment make testing for vaccinated people optional or test every 2 weeks like the NFL.
So I dont know why people continue to say “vaccine reduces risk of catching covid” when you aren’t testing people. I guess if you dont test for covid it means covid doesn’t exist or people are fine.
Your choice not to get vaccinated it’s also a employer’s choice to be safe and responsible for it’s other employees and customers if you don’t like it go somewhere else for work, you bunch of clowns that don’t get vaccinated don’t cry if a lockdown happens again and no fans at any games
Because unvaxed illegal to play in SF and NY. This is not an NBA rule. You choose to be unvaxed, then in those cities u can’t play. Then u should not be paid.
What part u not getting??
Why should teams pay someone who chose not to do what was needed to play. Say nothing how they hurting team. Nets should trade Irving for Simmons
What part of vaccinated can catch
n spread covid dont you get? Is the nba going to doc pay for vax players that are positive n miss games? Are they going to test players before games? Mandatory testing? Will vax players be doc pay n not allowed to play if they miss testing? Is the nva taking covid seriously? Seems like they arent.
Theyre doing none of that to my knowledge. Players should be tested before every game. Vax n unvax. Miss your test you get doc pay and cant play.
People forget that the vaccines were tested on the original strain. Covid has evolved to become not only more transmissible but more deadly so the vaccine still gives protection but not as much.
This is due to the fact covid has and has had an unvaccinated host population that has served as an incubator for new mutants to arise and spread. Mutants will continue to appear and those that increase the rate of spread will be favored by natural selection so it is definitely possible for things to get worse. This would not have happened if everyone would have been vaccinated as soon as they could.
For the record, humans are the ones that invent and use vaccines. Sheep do not.
To be fair, I think the media has done a horrible job focusing on the potential complications via mutation from the very beginning. Most outlets were too busy hyping up the death toll, ignoring the fact that the vast majority of deaths were confined to seniors as well as folks with multiple comorbidities. And in doing so they turned the low-risk groups away from doing the right thing, both for themselves and for the good of society.
I say this not because I don’t believe in the vaccines nor because I don’t take the virus seriously but because the media, for the umpteenth time, put a priority on the flashy figures instead of the real concerns: long covid, potential for mutations, etc. Once the media started focusing on the 1/1000 death figures the battle was lost, particularly with respect to those individuals who lack the ability to critically think or see through such manipulation.
I’m 30. I’m in good shape and in a very low risk group. But I’m educated enough on the virus to know that a) long covid can affect anyone, b) covid does damage to the body even in asymptotic cases, and c), covid mutations could eventually change the entire ballgame to something far more concerning. Hence why I have taken the virus seriously from the start.
It’s even better. 95% of the politicians probably got the vaccine as soon as they became available, but a large subset of them have been fighting against them since then. It’s disturbing, although what’s arguably more disturbing is that many folks don’t even realize this obvious fact.
I’m just relieved to know that unvaccinated players from visiting teams are not a threat to spread COVID.
@brian214… well said mate! Best comment in the thread!