The feelings among NBA players regarding the COVID-19 vaccine appear to be mixed. While the league has promoted public service announcement videos of legends like Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving getting their COVID-19 vaccine shots, they have not done so with any active players. That is partly due to the current players not being in eligible groups to be vaccinated yet. But it also seems some players are not too enthusiastic about getting their vaccinations.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was asked by the media on Sunday whether he would get vaccinated and urge other players to do the same. James said he was keeping that matter private.
“That’s a conversation that my family and I will have,” James said. “Pretty much keep that to a private thing.”
James Harden said he was still thinking about taking the vaccine. Utah’s Donovan Mitchell says he is still researching things.
Lakers forward Jared Dudley even said on Twitter that nobody is going to rush to take the vaccine without enough research when they are young and healthy. He also shared a false claim about the FDA not approving the vaccines yet.
Yes, but no one going to rush when your healthy and young without enough research. The FDA hasn’t even approved it yet I believe.. I think it takes for a year of data for that https://t.co/NZArYnyu5L
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) March 7, 2021
The opinions from these players should not come as a great shock. A report in mid-February said that many top NBA players were reluctant to promote the vaccine in PSAs.
