NBA will not require players to get COVID-19 vaccine

Although more people are willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine than they were earlier this year, that doesn't mean all athletes will choose to get vaccinated when they become eligible. 

NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes most players will choose to get vaccinated but said Saturday that they are not required to, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps:

"We're seeing this now, both in the actual numbers of people getting vaccinated in the United States and opinion polls, that people are becoming more willing to get vaccinated. I think, as to those who have been hesitators, as tens of millions of people now in the United States have gotten the vaccine, that people are seeing, at least in the short term, what the impact is, and they're hearing about how incredibly effective these vaccines are.

"My hunch is that most players ultimately will choose to get vaccinated. They have to make personal decisions at the end of the day — and I take that very seriously, and I take concerns very seriously. But my sense is most [players] will, ultimately, decide it is in their interest to get vaccinated."

Silver believes players' lives will be easier if they choose to get vaccinated. Under the NBA's current health and safety protocols, players have to be tested for COVID-19 up to three times per day and must quarantine if they come into close contact with someone who has tested positive. If players have the vaccine, they don't need to quarantine based on close contact with someone who tested positive. 

Many players have been forced to quarantine this season, including Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, who ended up in a fiasco where he couldn't start one game, was allowed to enter later in the game, and then pulled again due to health and safety protocols.