Jemele Hill Chides Kyrie Irving on MSNBC for Refusing to Get Vaxxed and ‘Further Endangering’ the Black Community
As the start of the NBA season rapidly approaches, Kyrie Irving remains one of the league’s few players who are refusing to get vaccinated. Sports journalist Jemele Hill is imploring him to consider the impact his decision has on others.
While the NBA cannot mandate the vaccine without approval from the Players Association, it doesn’t excuse them from local city laws. If Irving continues to refuse the jab, New York City’s indoor vaccine mandate will prevent him from entering the Brooklyn Nets’ arena for home games, costing the superstar nearly half of his $35 million annual salary.
But according to Hill, the cost of refusing the vaccine will be more than just financial for Irving.
“Because Kyrie is such a thoughtful person, I really want him to look at the bigger picture here,” Hill told Nicole Wallace on MSNBC. “The bigger picture is that this virus has disproportionately impacted his community.”
“He’s Native American,” Hill explained of Irving on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House. “And what the disease has done to Native American indigenous communities is just devastating. The same has happened in the African American community as well.”
Most of the NBA is setting a positive example for fans, with more than 95 percent of the league already vaccinated against Covid, a percentage exceeding that of the NFL and Major League Baseball. But as a superstar and vice president of the NBA Players Association, Irving’s refusal to get vaccinated carries weight among his peers and the community.
“With somebody in a position of leadership and influence, he needs to think about how his message is being received by the people who look up to him, who watch him, who idolize him,” Hill continued. “Everybody that watches Kyrie Irving doesn’t have millions of dollars.”
“He’s got to really think, is he really being responsible in how he’s using this platform that he’s been gifted with? And so I would love for him to see this an as opportunity to really speak to the communities that he cares about and not further endanger them by holding out from these vaccinations.”
Irving has not publicly addressed his vaccine hesitancy, but a recent Rolling Stone report claimed the superstar has bought into wild conspiracy theories, connecting the jab to a plan of Satan to control the Black community.
Watch above via MSNBC.
