NBA player Andrew Wiggins receives COVID-19 vaccine after religious exemption denied

On Sept. 24, 2021, Andrew Wiggins, a player for the Golden State Warriors, was informed his request for a religious exemption to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine had been denied. Per local regulations, being unvaccinated without a special exemption would preclude Wiggins from participating in home games at the Chase Center, the Warriors’ home stadium in San Francisco, California.   

Key Players

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the primary professional basketball league in the United States and Canada, boasting 30 franchises. It is free to set its own rules regarding player health and safety, but is beholden to local, state, and federal regulations in both the United States and Canada.

Andrew Wiggins, 26, was drafted into the NBA in 2014, and played for the Minnesota Timberwolves before joining the Warriors in 2020. In statements made in press conferences and interviews before the start of the 2021-22 NBA season, Wiggins said he was hesitant to discuss his vaccination status. 

Steve Kerr has been the head coach of the Warriors since 2014. Kerr also spent 15 seasons in the NBA as a player. 

Further Details

The NBA itself had decided not to implement a vaccine mandate for players on any team. On Sept. 30, 2021, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that about 95% of all NBA players had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Sporting News. 

The NBA said the issue over Wiggins’s vaccine hesitancy arose from a policy implemented by the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) “requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all participants age 12 and older at large indoor events,” according to ESPN. Because NBA games fall into the category of large indoor events, Wiggins would only be permitted to play in select away games.

Despite allowing them to participate in both games and practices, the NBA’s vaccine policy requires unvaccinated athletes to test daily, wear a mask, socially distance, and limit some nonbasketball group activities. According to Yahoo Sports, because practices qualify as large indoor events, Wiggins was restricted to individual workouts under the local vaccine mandate and was not able to participate in team practices and other group events during preseason training camp in late September 2021. 

Wiggins sought a religious exemption to avoid sitting out of practices and games, but the NBA denied the request. The league made it clear in its official statement that “Wiggins will not be able to play in Warriors home games until he fulfills the city’s vaccination requirements.” 

An ESPN piece noted that the exemption would not have mattered; the SFDPH released a statement saying that individuals “cannot test out of this requirement even if they have a medical or religious exemption.” 

According to USA Today, Wiggins would lose half of his salary by missing all home games (about $350,000 per game, or around $15.8 million over the course of the 82-game season). 

During the Warriors’ media day on Sept. 27, 2021, Wiggins said he planned on adhering to his beliefs despite the NBA’s decision. Wiggins declined to elaborate on what religious or personal beliefs precluded him from being vaccinated. “Anything that has to do with my status, vaccination, it’s a private matter,” Wiggins said. “So, I’m going to keep it personal and private.” 

Bob Myers, the general manager of the Warriors, also declined to elaborate on Wiggins’s objection, reiterating the matter was private, according to NBC Sports. 

Outcome 

Kerr tells media Wiggins has received first dose

On Oct. 3, 2021, Yahoo Sports reported Kerr told reporters Wiggins had been vaccinated, making him eligible to play in the Warriors’ first home game of the season on Oct. 21, and that Wiggins’s $31.6 million salary for the 2021-22 season would no longer be split in half. According to CNN, Kerr noted that Wiggins would remain uninterested in discussing his vaccination status, saying, “He just told me today that he was fine with us acknowledging it and that will be the end of it. So, I’m not going to answer any questions beyond that.”