Appearing on Wednesday on ESPN’s Get Up, NBA commissioner Adam Silver questioned the application of New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as Andrew Lopez of ESPN writes. The city’s regulations have kept Nets guard Kyrie Irving from playing at the Barclays Center or Madison Square Garden this season because he is still unvaccinated.
While Silver made it clear he believes everyone should get vaccinated and boosted, he suggested that New York City should reevaluate an ordinance that is applied unevenly to home players and visiting players.
“This law in New York, the oddity of it to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said. “I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays, but the home player can’t. To me, that’s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
With local officials beginning to roll back more and more COVID-related restrictions in New York City and elsewhere, Silver said he wouldn’t be surprised if the city reconsiders its restrictions on unvaccinated individuals before the end of the NBA’s season.
“I can imagine a scenario where Brooklyn, as part of New York City, with a new mayor now who wasn’t in place, Eric Adams, when that original ordinance was put into place, I could see him deciding to change along the way and say it’s no longer necessary to have a mandatory vaccination requirement, as I said particularly one that only affects home players,” Silver said.
After telling Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports that he didn’t love how the Ben Simmons and James Harden trade drama played out so publicly over many weeks and months, Silver followed up on that topic during his Get Up appearance today. Noting that the NBA’s move toward shorter-term contracts has resulted in more superstar movement than ever, Silver said that can be a good thing for the league as long as it’s done the right way.
“The data shows that superstars moving isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it allows bad situations to, in an orderly way, to change,” Silver said, per Lopez. “It gives teams that may not be in a competitive position hope that they can sign one of those players. But shorter contracts to me is something very different – and free agents moving at the end of contracts is different – than what we just saw, where you have players actively seeking to move while they’re under contract. The data is clear on that. That’s not good for the league.”
I mean dude’s right in regards to the way the mandate is. if you care about protecting people than just subjecting home team players (i.e. literally one single person in this case) to the rule doesnt much help.
The NYC law applies to more than just NBA players, Kyrie is just the only NBA player affected.
NY might also not have the legal authority to make the law apply to out of state.
Furthermore, seems like Adam has no problem with SF having the same law, I guess because the warriors have no unvaxxed players.
They would of but wiggns probably didn’t want the headache and just got it. Irving just like problems
Irving just wants to find reasons not to play
yeah, but it’s still less people than you think. a good chunk of NYC branded teams dont actually play in the city.
The law applies to things like gyms, concerts, etc. Professional athletes are a tiny, tiny part of the law.
“a good chunk of NYC branded teams dont actually play in the city.”
Aside from the Islanders, who aren’t really ‘branded’ as NYC (even still, they’re on the border of Queens and have played in Brooklyn), I can only think of the Jets and Giants.
Yankees – Bronx
Mets – Queens
Knicks – Manhattan
Nets – Brooklyn
Rangers – Manhattan
but we know that the Rangers don’t have any unvaccinated players and it seems Kyrie is the only such player amongst NBA players. cant comment on MLB but I haven’t heard rumblings in regards to that so it’s probably not a lot of Mets/Yankees players as well.
It their rule nothing the nba should do about it . Let it be . It the nets problem not the city or should be the nba. If it was more than one guy I get it. Since it I like problems Irving nothing to see here
Silver is a clown, who knows better or should. The mandate isn’t about guarding against unvaccinated players from infecting others in the arena. It’s about compelling vaccination in the geographical area subject to the mandate. For that purpose, it doesn’t matter much whether visiting players are vaccinated.
On Harden-Simmons, I guess he’s OK with everything that went on. Certainly doesn’t sound like a man who’s about to look into anything at all. If what went on avoided the technical requirements of tampering, then it’s a distinction without a difference (the tampering rules are only there to prevent a team acting in concert with a player still on another team). In any event, the next CBA should eliminate the tampering rules.
He should look into Simmons’s dubious claims of mental illness, especially since he’s magically ready to play as soon as he got traded.
Simmons was simply holding out, but he wanted to get paid so he abused the mental illness loophole. The other players in the league should be pissed at him for making a mockery of mental illness (especially guys like Rui).
Has BS has actually made a (real) claim (of medical excuse for not performing his contract)? I haven’t heard it, and I have read that he’s been fined (meaning he’s mostly not been paid, net).
He’ll almost certainly try to recoup some of those $$ now, and might make a claim on that basis, but it will involve more than his self serving assertions of mental illness.
It could still be looked into, though, particularly if he doesn’t file. If he does, it should come out in an arbitration.
First of all, Simmons hasn’t been paid for the games he missed in Philly. Second, if you remove someone from a bad situation, it can have a tremendous effect on his/her mental state. You have a trade between two teams with players in situations where they wanted out. Hopefully it’ll work out for the best. The tampering rule is more serious here because you’re allowing individuals in positions of power with other organizations to influence the moves of players under contract to other teams.
Excuse me, he’s not getting paid, but claiming mental illness stopped the fines. So it was done with money in mind. I don’t believe Simmons for a second because even while he was out, his reps were telling people he’d be ready to go as soon as he was traded.
And no, ‘removing someone from a bad situation’ does not magically cure mental illness. That is absolutely absurd.
Of course it does. And these claims from Philly that they were always supportive is ridiculous. Enough with the loser-cause-he-doesnot-shoot crap, he does everything else… It’s not always about shooting. BS needed a trade and something fair was worked out before the trade-deadline, so fair enough.
Except claiming mental illness didn’t stop the fines, he was still fined for missing games. He only got paid for day he practiced. Barring arbitration Simmons lost close 20 million dollars.
And yes removing the stimulus that causes the mental illness can go along ways towards recovery.
If I were in charge of the mandate in NYC I would be looking over my shoulder before Silver gets him fired for not doing what he wants. Go ask Hinkie what happened when he refused to stop openly tanking.
I’m pretty sure Eric Adams is now in charge of the NYC vaccine mandate. That dude ain’t afraid of Adam Silver.
That’s good then. Hopefully he tells Silver to stick it. This isn’t even about the mandate for me, I just like it when people like Silver who are surrounded by yes men get told no.
Silver looks like a Bond villain
they should make contracts stricter. if you sign a contract, you have to honor it or you get black listed from the NBA. contracts should be a max of 3 years
That’s pretty one sided, teams can trade a player at a moments notice with no backlash or regards to the players personal situation.
Be careful what you ask for Adam. I mean if you really want to go down that path, they could make it applicable to all players since that would be fair.
“But shorter contracts to me is something very different – and free agents moving at the end of contracts is different – than what we just saw, where you have players actively seeking to move while they’re under contract. The data is clear on that. That’s not good for the league.”
What is the data he is referencing? Share the specific information instead of throwing the word “data” around Mr. Silver.
I’m not sure how this could be short or long term “good” or “bad” for the league. Sports are entertainment first and foremost and by the number of comments surrounding Harden and Simmons people seem to be intrigued and hotly opinionated. Make of that what you will.
The data is dubious (and the point rhetorical) on saying “the data is clear”.
The poindexter in Silver worships data, and looks to hide behind it even when that’s not necessary. All he needed to say was no collective human endeavor (including the NBA) can work well amidst lying, cheating and stealing, and people ignoring their contract obligations is just a species of that, and we can’t let that continue with impunity. No supporting data needed.
One could argue that if lying, cheating and stealing were removed from any endeavor it could in no way involve humans because there is no human involved organization that is absent these activities.
So what I read from Silver is that he doesn’t like what is going on with no foundation to stand on that this behavior is bad for the league. There is no objective “good” or “bad”; only subjective opinion.
If he had shared data directly showing that this type of behavior is bad for business from a financial standpoint, then we have something tangible to talk about.
The mandate is for closed arenas. I don’t see anything wrong with it. But it should apply to away teams too. Cause if there is a concert there. Then there could be some leniency depending on promoters. Most closed arenas require vaccinated proof.
Truth is the mandates are starting to come down across the nation. So Kyrie and Nets could luck out soon. There are only 24-25 gms left in season.