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Andrew Wiggins claims he wants everything to be private. The Warriors’ only unvaccinated player appeared on media day and while turning his back on his decision, he claimed his privacy over and over again.
The attacker claimed to be “confident in his beliefs” but refused to explain these beliefs.
“It’s none of your business,” he said.
Wrong answer, Wiggins.
It’s a global pandemic, with over 4 million dead, and that’s our business. The business of your teammates. The business of paying customers. The business of your bosses. And media affairs, who were sitting in a small, closed room with an Andrew Wiggins unmasked.
Wiggins is among the NBA refractories – ESPN estimates nearly 40 – who threaten to derail the league’s plans, seasons and results. Bradley Beal and Kyrie Irving also stubbornly hold onto their anti-vaccination status.
Wiggins ranks third among Warriors players on the payroll (expected to earn over $ 31.5 million) and takes up a huge chunk of salary cap space. He was second on the team behind Stephen Curry in scoring, with 18.6 points per game. He was instrumental in the team’s plans for a relaunched 2021-22 season.
Instead, he could ruin everything.
As of October 13, when the inside San Francisco vaccination policy goes into effect, Wiggins will not be able to play or train inside the Chase Center. It’s unclear if he could play in arenas in other cities, such as New York, Boston, Toronto and Los Angeles, which also have strict vaccination policies. It is likely that more cities will adopt such policies in the coming weeks.
The Warriors’ brass took care to dance around the question.
“I am optimistic that in the first game here at Chase we will have our full complement of players,” said general manager Bob Myers.
Wiggins’ position is not only baffling but dangerous. You have the privilege of being part of an NBA team. You do what you need to do to value and protect your teammates. Including getting vaccinated against a highly contagious disease that created a global pandemic.
You play on a team with one of the great players in NBA history, Stephen Curry, who has a limited window of time in his career. A player who tried to provide information during the pandemic, chatting on Instagram with Dr Anthony Fauci.
“We obviously hope he has all the right information, access to the right resources,” Curry said. “No one lives under a rock in real society.”
Curry said he “hopes” that Wiggins is available. He said the situation was “not ideal”.
No it is not. Wiggins’ position has the potential to derail one of the remaining seasons of Curry’s brilliant career.
Myers feels the urgency to make sure his center player has everything he needs to be successful.
“I feel the urgency all the time; I mean I felt it when I got the job, ”Myers said of Curry. “I’m not necessarily prescribing that he runs out of steam or that he’s only a few years older. Athletes play much longer and much more efficiently for a number of reasons.
“But we owe it to him. I will say it officially. We really want to give him the best – and all the players – a chance to win. “
But do all of Curry’s teammates think they owe him the best? It doesn’t look like it. Meanwhile, Wiggins’ teammates need to answer questions about him and will continue to do so as long as this continues. This makes it not “private” or “personal”. It’s a team question.
Andre Iguodala has said he will support Wiggins because he comes from a place of “values”.
“I hope we can find a solution, and I think we will,” said Iguodala.
In Portland, Damian Lillard offered a little perspective on the issue of vaccination.
“I’m not mad at people who say they have to do their research,” Lillard said. “But I have a lot of people in my family that I spend time with. I’m not going to put their lives in danger. As a child, I must have been shot at all my life.
Most of us are not scientists qualified to do independent research. Instead, we trust the experts. Those who have found how to protect us against measles, polio, mumps. We receive all of our vaccines so that we do not spread diseases and do not threaten the young, the elderly and the vulnerable. This is what an evolved society does.
The culture of the Warriors has evolved in recent years. It was thoughtful and collaborative and based on sharing (not germs) and mutual trust. It’s hard to understand how someone can be considered a good teammate, how they can cash their insanely high paychecks, but they are unwilling to take a simple health and safety measure to protect themselves and themselves. his teammates.
Wiggins is apparently aware that he could lose a huge sum of money if he refused to comply with the vaccination requirements: potentially $ 350,000 per game. Asked about it, Wiggins said, “It’s my problem, not yours.”
On this point, I agree with him. If he wants to sacrifice that kind of money for disinformation, go for it. But don’t sacrifice your franchise’s season plans and competitiveness.
Don’t sacrifice the concept of “team”.
Without speaking directly about vaccinations, Steve Kerr alluded to the idea of being responsible to each other and the lessons he has learned during this painful pandemic.
“We all play a role in society,” Kerr said. “We have this disproportionate view of what American freedom and individualism is. And while it’s certainly amazing to enjoy this freedom, we also have to function as a society, as a community, and that includes our team, our communities, our surroundings, our whole country. I have the impression that we have lost some perspective on this.
“I hope we can get some of that back and start functioning as one again.”
Not yet. It is only when a member of the team realizes that their vaccination business is in fact everyone’s business.
Ann Killion is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @annkillion
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