Dallas' Trey Burke 'declining' vaccine
The veteran guard has publicly declared his preference to stay unvaccinated despite an onerous set of league restrictions that will frequently isolate him from the rest of the Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks guard Trey Burke on Thursday night joined Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac on the short list of NBA players to publicly state their aversion to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a message to the longtime Dallas sports anchor Mike Doocy that Doocy posted to Twitter, Burke wrote that he will be “standing on my own freedom of choice” and “declining” the shot. Burke acknowledged that he will have to follow the extensive “guidelines that the NBA has set in place for all non-vaccinated players.”
ESPN reported Thursday that an estimated 95% of the league’s player population has received at least one of the necessary shots to be considered vaccinated by league standards. Unvaccinated players will face frequent COVID-19 testing and numerous other restrictions this season, based on the league’s tentative set of health and safety guidelines that were circulated to teams earlier this week.
Unvaccinated players will also be required to use lockers far away from vaccinated teammates, maintain at least six feet of distance from all other attendees in team meetings and eat in isolation away from vaccinated team personnel. The rules also state that, beyond exceptions like grocery shopping or taking children to school, unvaccinated players will be asked “to remain at their residence” when in their home markets and stay on team hotel properties when on road trips.
“I know that basketball is our job — it’s something that we come in and do on a daily basis,” Burke said Wednesday, speaking to reporters after a Mavericks practice. “But for me, I have a life after basketball as well, and I’m just trying to look at all the facts into what [the vaccine] could be and how it can affect me long-term.”
Burke, 28, arrived at Mavericks training camp as a player without a clear hold on a regular-season roster spot. Dallas began camp with 16 guaranteed contracts — one more the NBA’s allowable max — and three more guards for Burke to compete with (Jalen Brunson, Tyrell Terry and the recently signed Frank Ntilikina) in a rotation headlined by All-Star playmaker Luka Dončić.
Burke earned a three-year, $9.5 million contract with a player option for Year 3 after his strong play in the Walt Disney World bubble in the summer of 2020. Yet he averaged just 6.6 points in 14.9 minutes per game last season and appeared only two of Dallas’ seven playoff games in a reflection of his decreasing role.
Orlando’s Isaac explained his own vaccine reticence at length earlier this week, insisting that he is not “anti-medicine” or “anti-science” but also stressing that, having already endured his own COVID-19 case, he was “not ashamed to say that I’m uncomfortable with taking the vaccine at this time.”
“It is my belief that the vaccine status of every person should be their own choice and completely up to them, without bullying, without being pressured or without being forced into doing so,” Isaac said.
Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving, Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins and Washington’s Bradley Beal are the league’s most prominent players believed to be unvaccinated. Irving and Wiggins brushed aside repeated questions about vaccination status from reporters this week, both citing a desire for privacy, while Beal has not ruled out changing his stance and getting the vaccine.
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Every single person that declines to get the vaccine that doesn't have a valid, medical reason to not get it is selfish and the antithesis of someone that desires to be an actual member of society. Mark, your buddy Kareem has it right - these people are selfish and not worthy of our respect, our esteem or our money. It'll be very interesting to see if he's still on the team once cuts start.