Enes Kanter ‘Very Disappointed’ LeBron James Isn’t Encouraging People to Get Vaccinated
Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter said he was “very disappointed” with NBA superstar LeBron James for not actively encouraging people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Kanter spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown on Saturday about his ongoing attempts to tackle vaccine hesitancy within the NBA. While the great majority of the NBA has been vaccinated by now, there is an ongoing conversation on how to handle the public health risks from the remaining 10 percent of unvaccinated players. Players like Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal have expressed varying levels of vaccine hesitancy or outright opposition to the mandate.
Since Irving has said that he wants his health details to remain private, Kanter acknowledged that receiving the vaccine is his choice, “but in this pandemic, our choice could actually hurt others, and we’re playing a team sport.”
“Just think about all of those unvaccinated players going to go against the players who are vaccinated for 48 minutes,” Kanter said. “And it is not like we are playing ping pong. We are playing a contact sport. It is basketball. So 48 minutes they will be sweating and they will be on us the whole game. So I don’t know if the vaccinated players will be comfortable to go against unvaccinated players.”
Kanter’s comments are a reiteration of his concerns about how Covid could spread while he and his fellow athletes are competing against each other in close quarters. Kanter declined to outright call for an NBA vaccine mandate, but as he spoke about how Americans are entitled to freedom, “they need to be smarter on their decision because obviously we are athletes and we have a huge following.”
From there, Brown put the focus on James, who has been silent for months about getting the vaccine, but recently revealed that he did receive it. Since James has taken the position that getting vaccinated is a personal choice, Brown asked Kanter if James has “a responsibility” to promote the vaccine in public after declining to do so.
Kanter’s answer:
You know, when I heard it, I was very disappointed and it is ridiculous. Obviously Lebron James, he’s one of the faces of the league. And he should be the first one to go out there and say, listen, everyone, I got the vaccine and I’m encouraging everyone, my community, everyone, basketball fans, non-basketball fans, all sport fans to go out, get this vaccine so we could save other lives. So when I heard that, I just can’t believe it. But I hope he could educate himself about this vaccination and encourage other people around him.
Watch above, via CNN.
