Many of the National Basketball Association’s most popular players are rejecting requests to promote vaccinations against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, ESPN reports, citing unidentified players and agents.
The NBA’s invitations to many of the league’s best-known players to encourage the general population to get vaccinated through public service announcements, or PSAs and other means, were “received with a lukewarm response,” the report said. ESPN.
Agents and players have said the backlash is in line with the general skepticism of the vaccine among American blacks, who have only expressed confidence by 38%, according to a study.
Last season, Blacks made up 74% of the NBA teams.
In addition to being wary of taking it themselves, other reasons for the reluctance to promote its use to others and animosity with the competition over the All-Star Game, which LeBron James of Los Angeles Lakers has spoken out against.
Thirty NBA games this season have been postponed due to positive testing for the new coronavirus, contract tracking protocols, and teams that don’t have enough players for games due to restrictions.
Commissioner Adam Silver told general managers of the league’s teams in a conference call on Tuesday that the NBA could “ incentivize ” teams and individuals to take and promote the vaccine with a relaxation of testing protocols and quarantine regulations, the ESPN said, citing from its anonymous sources.
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