Adam Silver Questions NYC Vaccine Mandate, Points Out ‘Oddity’ of It Affecting Only Home Players

NBA commissioner Adam Silver questioned New York City‘s vaccine mandate applying to only home teams. In an interview on ESPN's Get Up on Wednesday, Silver speculated that recently elected Mayor Eric Adams could look into altering the vaccination requirement in the near future.

Silver said that the mandate, which has prevented Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who is unvaccinated against COVID-19, from playing any home games in Brooklyn this season, “doesn‘t make sense” to him. Under the current ordinance, a player on an away team that is unvaccinated against the coronavirus is still eligible to play at Barclays Center and/or Madison Square Garden.

“This law in New York, the oddity to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said. “If ultimately that rule is about protecting people in the arena, it just doesn‘t make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays, but the home player can‘t. To me, that‘s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”

Silver reiterated that the league office wanted to make vaccinations a requirement for players, but that the National Basketball Players Association objected. The commissioner did note that about 97% to 98% of the league’s players are vaccinated against COVID-19.

While he said he has no inside information on the mandate, Silver did explain that he’s seen New York City, home to the NBA‘s main offices, grow increasingly active in recent weeks. As a result, he believes that Mayor Adams could alter or even completely overturn the current ordinance.

“Being here in the New York market, particularly in the last week, many of the masking restrictions are being lifted,” Silver said. “You can just feel it in the city. There are more people in restaurants, more people out and about. While it‘s my personal view that people should get vaccinated, I can imagine a scenario where Brooklyn, as part of New York City, with a new mayor now ... I could see him deciding to change along the way and say it‘s no longer necessary to have a mandatory vaccination requirement.”