Veteran NBA Official Banned After Refusing Covid Vaccine: ‘My Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ’ Got ‘In the Way of Me Refereeing’

A familiar face to NBA fans has not been on the court this season after he was banned for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid.

Ken Mauer, who became an NBA official in 1986 told Jason Whitlock of The Blaze that he didn’t want to get vaccinated for religious reasons. According to Mauer, the decision caused him to lose the job he held with the NBA for 36 years.

“I never thought that my faith in our Lord Jesus Christ would prevent me or stop me or get in the way of me refereeing NBA basketball games. And that’s about it in a nutshell and that’s what’s happened,” Mauer said during an interview on Fearless with Jason Whitlock. “Not to just me, but other people.”

Mauer said that as many as 19 of the 73 NBA officials were initially resistant to the idea of getting vaccinated, but the union ultimately gave in to the league’s demands of a mandate. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement with the Referees Association includes a vaccine mandate, but players are not required to get the jab. By the start of the NBA season, only four referees, including Mauer, were not vaccinated.

The NBA Referees Association’s decision to agree to a vaccine mandate without full support has Mauer admiring the truckers in the Freedom Convoy from a distance. “I will never ever question what a trucker charges me to ship something again in my life,” the former NBA referee said. “I’m so proud of them.”

Mauer, a lifelong Catholic, told Whitlock he chose not to get vaccinated after doing his own research and coming to the conclusion that aborted fetal tissue was used in developing the shot – a claim that has been widely disputed by medical experts. The Catholic church has also spoken in favor of its parishioners getting vaccinated against Covid, with Pope Francis recently suggesting it was a “moral obligation” to do so.

Mauer was the third-longest tenured referee in NBA history and had his sights set on becoming the longest-tenured official in league history, a goal that is now in jeopardy because of his refusal to get vaccinated.

Watch above via The Blaze