The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets may experience something rather odd next season if they have any unvaccinated players from COVID-19. In fact, if their players aren’t vaccinated, they won’t be able to play at home games, theoretically making them useless or decreasing their value exponentially.
Sham Charania of The Athletic reported that teams with vaccination requirements in their home cities will have to abide by the rules:
Sources: Unvaccinated NBA players in markets with local requirements — such as NYC (Knicks, Nets) and SF (Warriors) — will not be allowed to enter home arenas or facilities for games or team activities conducted there unless there’s approved medical or religious exemption.
This is definitely a peculiar rule but necessary during a pandemic that has taken so many lives and continues to rage throughout the world. Nonetheless, we can assume the entire Knicks roster will get vaccinated unless they would rather watch from the sidelines next season.
The only players that are exempt are ones that have a medical or religious exemption, which will then be determined by the NBA for legitimacy. If players fail to uphold the requirements, they will be fined or suspended by the league.