NBA superstars Draymond Green and LeBron James have both been vaccinated against COVID-19. However, to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and many others, they’re not fully doing their part in preventing the spread of this deadly virus. In fact, they’re doing the opposite.
Amid an offseason of drama surrounding Andrew Wiggins and his anti-vaccine stance — one that could have cost him a lot of playing time and money based on Golden State’s COVID-19 restrictions — Green proclaimed that he would not push Wiggins to get the vaccine, opining that it was his teammate’s “personal choice” and suggesting someone to get vaccinated was interfering with their freedom.
LeBron then went and shared the video of Green’s statement, saying that he “couldn’t have said it any better” himself.
It’s there that Abdul-Jabbar stepped in with a decisive seven words in response to LeBron: “Actually, it couldn’t have been said worse.”
In the Hall of Famer’s response to the stance put forward by Green and James, Abdul-Jabbar argues that while their claims stem from the basic idea that “freedom” would be stripped by a vaccine mandate, or even a nudge from teammates, we can’t be for freedom “at the expense of others nor if it damages the country.” A parallel was then drawn to anti-vaccine citizens and those who refuse to wear a seatbelt.
“That’s why we mandate seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, car insurance, education for our children,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “For example, seatbelt compliance is at 88% in the U.S., but that 12% that doesn’t comply results in 47% of car accident fatalities (17,000) and costs U.S. employers $5 billion a year, and those costs are passed on to us. They made the choice, but we survivors are left to deal with the grief and the price tag.
“...The country also mandates against drunk driving, “pressing hard” against the freedom to drive under the influence. We do that because drunk driving kills 11,000 Americans every year and costs us more than $44 billion dollars. Vaccine deniers and those who want to “honor” them are like drunk drivers who are convinced they’re okay to drive. When they make it home without an accident, that means they were right. Until they aren’t. Which is why 97% of COVID deaths are among the unvaccinated.”
For this reason, defending any vaccine hesitancy is not a good thing, like James suggests, but a legitimately harmful mindset to have.
Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t the only NBA figure to take exception to Green’s statement or LeBron’s stance. Center Enes Kanter called LeBron’s unwillingness to publicly advocate for the vaccine “ridiculous," stressing that James needed to not only get the vaccine but also use his platform to encourage others to do the same.
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