The NBA informed teams Monday that players still need to have either received a primary course of a COVID-19 vaccine or been given a medical clearance from getting one in order to play games in Canada, according to a league memo obtained by ESPN. The memo also states that, should players be ineligible to play in games in Canada, teams must list them as, “Out – Health and Safety Protocols,” and that they will lose their pay for any games missed due to not being vaccinated.
Tag: Coronavirus vaccine
This season, the Raptors will play at …
This season, the Raptors will play at least 44 games in Canada: preseason games in Edmonton against the Utah Jazz; Montreal against the Boston Celtics; and Toronto against the Chicago Bulls; plus their typical 41 regular-season home games at Scotiabank Arena and any additional playoff games. The same rules apply both to going to Canada to play in a game, as well as for entering the United States. Anyone playing for the Raptors, therefore, would have to be vaccinated in order to play in any game this season. Last season, the Raptors were fully vaccinated.
League won’t have vaccine mandate next season
Vincent Goodwill: According to a league memo obtained by @YahooSports, the NBA will not have a vaccine mandate in place next season, but will strongly suggest all personnel be up to date with vaccinations. Periodic testing of unvaccinated players could be allowed, pending discussions with NBPA
Andrew Wiggins: I still wish I didn’t get vaccinated
Andrew Wiggins made his first All-Star team this year and was a crucial part of the Golden State Warriors’ run to the NBA title, but he still regrets one thing he did this season. “I still wish I didn’t get [vaccinated], to be honest with you,” Wiggins told FanSided.
Andrew Wiggins: I still wish I didn’t get vaccinated
Andrew Wiggins made his first All-Star team this year and was a crucial part of the Golden State Warriors’ run to the NBA title, but he still regrets one thing he did this season. “I still wish I didn’t get [vaccinated], to be honest with you,” …
Andrew Wiggins made his first All-Star team this year and was a crucial part of the Golden State Warriors’ run to the NBA title, but he still regrets one thing he did this season. “I still wish I didn’t get [vaccinated], to be honest with you,” Wiggins told FanSided.
Source: ESPN
Source: ESPN
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Joe Mussatto @joe_mussatto
OKC’s roster is still three over the limit:
– Bazley
– Dieng
– Dort
– Favors
– Gilgeous-Alexander
– Giddey
– Holmgren
– Jerome
– Krejci
– Maledon
– Mann
– Muscala
– Pokusevski
– Robinson-Earl
– Wiggins
– J-Dub
– J-Will
– K. Williams
Two-way
– Omoruyi
– Waters – 5:27 PM
OKC’s roster is still three over the limit:
– Bazley
– Dieng
– Dort
– Favors
– Gilgeous-Alexander
– Giddey
– Holmgren
– Jerome
– Krejci
– Maledon
– Mann
– Muscala
– Pokusevski
– Robinson-Earl
– Wiggins
– J-Dub
– J-Will
– K. Williams
Two-way
– Omoruyi
– Waters – 5:27 PM
NBA on ESPN @ESPNNBA
Andrew Wiggins said he still wishes he didn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a season in which he helped the Warriors win the NBA championship. es.pn/3RMCUvJ – 5:17 PM
Andrew Wiggins said he still wishes he didn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a season in which he helped the Warriors win the NBA championship. es.pn/3RMCUvJ – 5:17 PM
More on this storyline
Unlike Irving, Wiggins did get vaccinated before the start of the NBA season. “I did it, and I was an All-Star this year and champion, so that was the good part, just not missing out on the year, the best year of my career,” Wiggins said. “But for my body, I just don’t like putting all that stuff in my body, so I didn’t like that and I didn’t like that it wasn’t my choice. I didn’t like that it was either get this or don’t play.” -via ESPN / July 19, 2022
“There was definitely pressure, especially being from Canada, just knowing the whole city is watching. The whole country is watching. The whole country wants you to do good. They’re calling you the next LeBron, stuff like that. Ain’t nobody gonna be the next LeBron. That’s one of one.” -via Lakers Daily / July 12, 2022
The Warriors have several young assets on paper, including Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman and Moses Moody, but Golden State would be reluctant to give up all these assets in a Durant trade proposal, HoopsHype has learned. Andrew Wiggins would be an attractive trade chip and is coming off an All-Star season, but he can’t be included in a Durant trade at the moment, as explained in-depth by our USA TODAY colleagues at For The Win. -via HoopsHype / July 12, 2022
Unlike Irving, Wiggins did get …
Unlike Irving, Wiggins did get vaccinated before the start of the NBA season. “I did it, and I was an All-Star this year and champion, so that was the good part, just not missing out on the year, the best year of my career,” Wiggins said. “But for my body, I just don’t like putting all that stuff in my body, so I didn’t like that and I didn’t like that it wasn’t my choice. I didn’t like that it was either get this or don’t play.”
Pregnant reporter says PGA Tour fired her after she failed to get ‘religious exemption’ on COVID protocols
Gregson said she tried to get a religious exemption from the PGA Tour but was not granted one.
Reporter, producer and host Teryn Gregson said in a social media post Monday that the PGA Tour fired her for refusing to follow protocols set by the organization to deal with COVID-19.
Gregson, who is 22 weeks pregnant with her second child, worked for the PGA Tour for 5½ years. She was a full-time employee and said she tried to get a religious exemption from returning to the PGA Tour offices, but was not granted one.
She was notified of her dismissal last Friday.
“I was in need of religious exemptions from their vaccine protocols of masking and testing,” Gregson said in her post. “They would not accommodate me in such a way that I did not have to violate my religious beliefs.
“I was hoping we could come together on this.”
Reached by Golfweek, the PGA Tour responded to a series of questions.
“The PGA Tour does not have a vaccine mandate for its employees,” the Tour said in a statement. “In September and based upon guidance from medical and legal advisors, the PGA Tour established additional health and safety protocols for those who choose to remain unvaccinated. There have been numerous communications to employees about these specific health and safety protocols.
“Regarding religious exemptions, there is no need for a religious exemption from a vaccine requirement because – again – we do not have a vaccine requirement at the PGA Tour. We do, however, have a process for reviewing requests for medical or religious accommodations (from both vaccinated and unvaccinated employees) for Tour health and safety protocols. All are reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a request qualifies and what accommodations can be made.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWTSoGxAqoz/
Gregson also appeared Monday on the conservative Steve Deace Show on BlazeTV and said that she had COVID this past summer. She is not vaccinated.
Gregson had been working from a studio in her home since the global pandemic began March 2020. However, the PGA Tour established rules for its employees to return to work at the PGA Tour’s offices in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., beginning November 1. The original date to resume in-office work was June 1, but a highly transmissible Delta variant led to a spike in new cases and hospitalizations in Northeast Florida. This led the PGA Tour, with guidance from local and state officials as well as the Tour’s medical advisor, Dr. Tom Hospel, to move the mandatory date to return to the office to September 1 and then November 1.
Fully vaccinated employees are not required to wear masks within the building. For unvaccinated employees, masks are required to be worn “at all times, including in conference rooms, fitness center, simulator and when walking through hallways. Masks can be removed while sitting at a workstation if social distancing can be achieved or when eating/drinking. In addition to masking requirements, all unvaccinated employees will undergo weekly COVID-19 screening tests.”
“They told me that (my request) was an undue hardship,” Gregson said on the Deace Show. “And that I had to come back in the office to be able to collaborate with my team.”
The PGA Tour said nearly 94 percent of its employees are fully vaccinated.
“In the months leading up to our eventual return, we rolled out a series of employee communications via emails, newsletters, videos and moderated Q&A sessions to answer questions related to COVID, vaccinations, health and safety protocols and general return-to-office onboarding,” the statement continued.
“When mandatory in-office work for Northeast Florida employees at our new Global Headquarters and PGA Tour Entertainment building commenced on November 1, the vaccination rate of employees was at 90 percent. Presently, all Tour employees based in Northeast Florida are required to return to the office and follow health and safety protocols.”
Multiple efforts by Golfweek to reach Gregson went unanswered.
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PGA Tour ‘strongly encourages’ players, caddies to get COVID-19 vaccine
In a memo obtained by Golfweek on Monday, the PGA Tour “strongly” encouraged players and caddies to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The PGA Tour is doubling down on its support of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A week after the Tour sent an email to its players indicating that those who are fully vaccinated will not have to take a COVID-19 test before entering an event, they followed up with a memo on Monday morning that strongly encouraged players and caddies to get the vaccine “as soon as eligible.”
From the memo, obtained by Golfweek: “While we encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible, the Tour endeavors to make vaccine as accessible as possible once supply becomes available for private allocation.”
Included in the memo were “vaccine considerations” to prove the safety of the shots, as well as new protocols for fully vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals.
The considerations explained how the vaccines went through clinical trials for safety and noted that 700 million people worldwide have been vaccinated with “very few significant side effects reported.”
“There are common misconceptions and concerns about infertility, altering DNA, microchipping, becoming infected with COVID as a result of the COVID 19 vaccine,” the memo read. “These misconceptions and concerns are false.”
While the Tour won’t mandate its players get the vaccine, those without the shots will have a more difficult time preparing for tournament play.
The Tour’s onsite testing operations will discontinue at the end of June. Come July, “any individual seeking to participate in a Tour-affiliated event will be required to show proof of a negative PCR test at their own expense within 72 hours of arrival onsite.”
Proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours of arriving for a tournament will be mandatory for players, caddies and anyone else in the tournament bubble.
Whether an individual has the vaccine or not, the use of face coverings and social distancing is still required in accordance with the PGA Tour’s Health and Safety Program.
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Lakers news: Some players will get COVID-19 vaccine this week
The NBA has told its members that getting the vaccine can help relax the strict Health and Safety protocols for people who have it.
Several players on at least three NBA teams have already taken the most definitive step towards taking themselves off the NBA’s very robust testing schedule: getting the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the latest reporting from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski, several members of the Los Angeles Lakers will join members of the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Portland Trail Blazers, in getting their coronavirus vaccine.
Due to many legal issues, including HIPPA, teams will not say which players get the coronavirus vaccine. Some players on other teams, such as Jusuf Nurkic and Enes Kanter of the Portland Trail Blazers, posted they had received the vaccine on their personal Twitter accounts. So, we won’t know about any Lakers players or staff members getting the vaccine unless they are the ones to tell us themselves.
The Lakers flew back to Los Angeles last night after their loss in New Orleans. Now they get to stay in Los Angeles for the next week, starting with a game on Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
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PGA Tour Commish: ‘Vaccination is a choice’
Jay Monahan says that “vaccination is a choice” and he won’t use his powers as Commissioner to require players get a vaccine when available.
ORLANDO – PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is playing in the PNC Championship pro-am on Friday with his father, Joe, alongside Tiger Woods and son Charlie. It doesn’t get better than a day on the course with dear old dad.
But in between shots Monahan’s head must be spinning at the world of possibilities facing him and the PGA Tour in the year ahead. The Tour deserves to be commended for returning to action in June, completing the 2019-20 season and launching the “super-season” of 50 Tour events that will run through the Tour Championship in early September with hardly a hiccup amidst a global pandemic. One day earlier, Monahan fielded more than two dozen questions from reporters on a conference call, including topics such as when will more fans be allowed to attend events and how a Coronavirus vaccine could impact the Tour in 2021.
The West Coast Swing will feature limited fan access, especially at the California-based events. It’s still unclear what the Tour’s plan will be for the Florida Swing, which begins the first week of March. Monahan outlined how tournaments need a six-to-eight week window to plan for various scenarios and work with local authorities to make all decisions.
“I would be hopeful that when we return to Florida we’ll be able to continue on the path that we’ve been on where we’re playing pro-ams, we have our corporate hospitality program and our title sponsors are able to use a platform to drive their business and that we are safely reintroducing fans,” Monahan said. “I think the core of your question is how many people do we see. It really is hard to predict at this point what that will be. We’re very encouraged by the news around the vaccine and vaccine distribution and paying very close attention to what that can mean as we go into calendar year 2021.
“I think you’ll just see a slow and steady increase in the number of fans that we have on-site, but again, we won’t be the sole arbiter in that. Any steps that we take we’ll be doing in concert with our partners in the local communities where we play.”
When asked to address the introduction of a vaccine and how that could impact the Tour’s plan, Monahan expressed enthusiasm that it could be a shot in the arm for the Tour, but took a cautious stance that it was premature to jump to any conclusions.
“As exciting as it is, I think there’s still an awful lot that we need to learn and we need to know, but I would say at this point we’re not going to be in a position where we’re mandating vaccination, and that’s the way that we’re looking at it at this point in time,” Monahan said. “We have a lot to learn. We’re going to be very thoughtful about it. But it’s early to say to you with any definition how that’s going to affect how we operate.”
When asked if in his role as Commissioner he would use his power to mandate a player to take a vaccine, Monahan said he would not.
“I think vaccination is a choice,” he said. “I think we would apply the same logic and the same amount of care to that subject as we have to every other subject, and that is to try and do our best to educate our members on vaccination and the pros and cons associated with it. But ultimately it’s an individual decision.”
Monahan also reported that despite the loss of several revenue streams – such as tickets and concessions, corporate hospitality – the PGA Tour raised $160 million for charity this year. That is down from $204 million a year ago, Monahan said.
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