NBA players reluctant to get COVID-19 vaccine: How "Personal Choice" becomes a "Public Concern"

Jaylen Brown tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. When asked earlier if he were vaccinated, he declined to answer, adding that it was a "personal choice."

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This is a crazy-ass time to be an NBA fan.

One day, you’re getting ready to see your favorite player in action. The next, he’s nowhere to be found because of health and safety protocols.

Sadly, this is steadily becoming the “new normal” that NBA fans must embrace this season, one that Boston Celtics fans know all too well with Jaylen Brown becoming the latest member of the organization to test positive for COVID-19.

It’s unclear if Brown has been vaccinated.

When the Celtics released a statement indicating Brown had tested positive, there was no mention of whether he was vaccinated.

This is important to note because the team’s handling of head coach Ime Udoka’s positive COVID-19 result was very different.

Udoka’s positive result came just before the start of training camp. When the team announced he had tested positive during the Celtics’ annual media day on Sept. 27, they had indicated at that time he had been vaccinated prior to the positive reading.

No such indication was made as it relates to Jaylen Brown.

And when asked about his own vaccination status earlier, Brown indicated at that time that it was a personal choice.

"I have my own thoughts about it," Brown said at media day on Sept. 27. "I respect my teammates' decisions on things like that. Everyone has their own opinion on it. I think it's a personal choice."

He’s right, of course.

It’s very much a personal choice; that is until he tested positive for COVID-19.

At that point, it morphed from being a personal choice to a public concern that others he came into contact with, have to now deal with in some capacity.

And we’re not just talking about his teammates, either.

That’s why the “personal choice” argument for those NBA players reluctant to get vaccinated, doesn’t really hold up.

When someone has too much alcohol to drink and makes a personal choice to get behind the steering wheel of a car and drive home, it is very much a personal choice; that is until someone gets hurt because of that “personal choice” which then becomes - you guessed it! - a public concern.

During the Celtics Media Day last month, I asked Marcus Smart about vaccination, and as one of the Celtics’ leaders, his approach to the situation knowing that players on his team and throughout the league, view the decision as a very personal one.

“It’s tough,” Smart said before adding, “being told what you can and cannot do with your own body.”

That response in many respects was where Smart stood at some point in the decision-making process for himself to get vaccinated or not.

And whether you are for or against vaccination, it’s understandable why professional athletes who represent some of the most well-conditioned human beings on the planet, would be reluctant and feel the way Smart did.

I asked a former NBA player about Smart’s quote and he agreed that many of the current players he has been in contact with during the pandemic have indicated they are concerned about the down-the-road effects of a vaccine.

So I asked him why don’t players who feel that way, say that when asked about it.

“Good question,” he said. “I think part of it is that they don’t want to come off looking selfish.”

But saying it’s a “personal choice” doesn’t look selfish?

Smart, like most NBA players, has tried his best to be respectful of those who are for and against vaccinations, well aware that he will be in a locker room with players on both sides of the vaccine divide.

“For me, everybody is entitled to their own opinions, how they feel. I chose to be vaccinated for one… I didn’t feel like dealing with a lot of the BS,” Smart said. “That was my decision and I stand with anybody who makes their own decision, and feels what’s best for themselves.”

Smart later mentioned again not wanting to deal with the BS and the limitations the league was going to put on unvaccinated players, as factors he weighed before getting the vaccine.

But at the very end of Smart answering my question, he addressed what ultimately drives most players such as himself in this league: winning.

As good as Jayson Tatum and Brown and Al Horford are, Boston’s chances at winning at the highest levels are exponentially better if they have Marcus Smart available for all games without any health and safety protocol restrictions.

“I didn’t feel like causing my team any disparity when it comes to me not being available for whatever reasons,” Smart said. “I respect everybody’s decision, either pro or against. That’s where I am with that; that’s where it is.”

And “where it is” as it relates to Brown, is the personal choice he made remaining a personal choice… that is until he tested positive for COVID-19 which has now made it a public concern.

Crazy ass times, indeed.