When asked about teammate Andrew Wiggins’ vaccine situation, Golden State Warriors veteran Draymond Green said that it isn’t his place to push Wiggins one way or another, while lamenting that the whole vaccine issue has gotten way too political.
Green offered an example of why it isn’t his place to tell Wiggins what to do with his health during Friday’s press availability.
“That would be like Andrew — who everyone knows recently just had a kid maybe five months or so ago now — that would be like me telling him, ‘Yo, your wife is going into labor. How dare you leave this team and not go tend to your wife?'” Green said Thursday, via ESPN. “That’s something that’s personal to him. That’s something that’s health-related. That’s something that’s personal to his family. This is no different.”
“I’m not in any position to tell him what he should or should not be doing,” Green added, according to ESPN. “And as a leader of his team, I’m not going to go to him and say, ‘Hey man, we really need …’ No, you do what you feel. I’m not going to go and ask him, did he get a polio vaccine? So why would I go ask him if he got a COVID vaccine?
“It’s not my place or my business on whether he gets vaccinated or not — it’s your own personal choice at the end of the day what you do with your body. It’s not my place to tell him what he should or shouldn’t do with his. Because he’s not going to come tell me what I should do with my body,” Green continued.
The 10-year Warriors vet also said that the whole issue has become too political.
“We’re dealing with something that to me feels like has turned into a political war when you’re talking about vaccinated [people] and non-vaccinated [people],” Green exclaimed. “I think it’s become very political.”
Wiggins’ decision will impact the team, though. If he remains unvaccinated, he’ll miss at least half of the Warriors schedule. Thanks to policies enacted by New York City and San Francisco, athletes who are unvaccinated are not permitted to enter any stadium or arena in those two localities until they can show proof of having been vaccinated.
The NBA recently announced that any player who misses a game over his vaccine status will also forfeit his pay for that game. For Wiggins, he may end up forfeiting half his annual salary!
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