New York City mayor Eric Adams addressed NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s comments on NYC’s vaccine mandate applying to only home teams.
Adams, who was recently elected as NYC’s mayor, believes the rule is “unfair,” but he is very leery about changing what has been put in place.
“I think the rule is unfair. I believe that we are saying to out-of-town athletes that they can come in and not be vaccinated,” Adams said. “Yet, New York athletes have to be vaccinated.”
“I’m not sure if a Boston fan created this rule, I don’t know but I am really really leery about sending the wrong message. Having the city close down again keeps me up at night. And the message we put in place, the rule we put in place, to start changing it now, I think it would send mixed messages.”
“I’m struggling with this to just be honest with you.”
In addition to athletes, Adams also stated that out-of-town entertainers who are not vaccinated have the ability to come and perform in NYC, something he also believes is unfair.
Adams’ comments on Wednesday afternoon came after Silver addressed the city’s mandate in an interview on ESPN’s Get Up on Wednesday morning.
The current mandate prevents Nets guard Kyrie Irving—who is not vaccinated against COVID-19—from playing any home games in Brooklyn this season. However, a player from a visiting team that is unvaccinated against the coronavirus can still play at Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden.
“This law in New York, the oddity to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said. “If ultimately that rule is about protecting people in the arena, it just doesn‘t make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays, but the home player can‘t. To me, that‘s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
Silver believes that Adams can change or cancel the mandate. Currently, nearly 97 to 98% of NBA players are vaccinated against COVID-19.
