We reported on how some of the NBA players had been speaking up about the question of getting vaccinated and how they thought that whether to get the vaccine should be the choice of the individual person, in the words of Orlando Magic player Jonathan Issac, “without being demeaned.”

Issac made clear he was not “anti-vax, I’m not anti-medicine, I am not anti-science.” Indeed, he laid out the point about natural immunity that many leave out of the equation.

“I would start with I’ve had COVID in the past and so our understanding of antibodies, of natural immunity has changed a great deal from the onset of the pandemic and is still evolving. I understand that the vaccine would help if you catch COVID, you’ll be able to have less symptoms from contracting it. But with me having COVID in the past and having antibodies, with my current age group and physical fitness level, it’s not necessarily a fear of mine.” [….]

“I would that’s a couple of reasons I would say I’m hesitant at this time but at the end of the day I don’t feel that it is anyone’s reason to come out and say well this is why or this is not why, it should just be their decision. Loving your neighbor is not just loving those who agree with you or look like you or move in the same way that you do. It’s, you know, loving those who don’t.”

Washington Wizards player Bradley Beal also spoke out.

“I would like an explanation to people with vaccines, why are they still getting COVID?” Beal asked. “If that is something that [vaccinated individuals] are supposed be highly protected from, like it’s funny that it only reduces your chances of going to the hospital. Doesn’t eliminate anybody from getting COVID. Right?”

“… So you can still get COVID,” Beal added. “And you can still pass it along with the [vaccination] right? I am just asking the question.”

The Daily Show then went after the players for asking questions, mocking them, particularly Beal.

The Daily Show mocks NBA players for not falling in line on Covid vaccines: "They make a bunch of black men live in Utah. We’re pretending a vaccine is worse than that?” pic.twitter.com/vgqczUGSSW

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 1, 2021

“I think the NBA should mandate that players get vaccinated,” Roy Wood claimed. “I mean, they already make a bunch of Black men live in Utah! We’re pretending a vaccine is worse than that?”

Um, guys? This was not a funny bit, this was pushing a political point. As I said in explaining why Fox’s Greg Gutfeld is now beating a lot of the nighttime talk show hosts/alleged comedians, they’re not funny anymore when they do things like this. And people turn them off when they see they are just about politics. If you have to mock people and demean people over not being against the vaccine, but having an issue with mandates, exactly where are you?

Who would have picked NBA players on their bingo cards for this stand?

Let’s add Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green now to that list as well. Green said he would not be pushing his fellow player Andrew Wiggins to get vaccinated because that was his choice.

Draymond gives his thoughts on Wiggins’ COVID-19 vaccination status pic.twitter.com/Ohi6gCyWPN

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) September 30, 2021

From Yahoo:

“That would be like Andrew — who everyone knows recently just had a kid maybe five months or so ago now — that would be like me telling him, ‘Yo, your wife is going into labor. How dare you leave this team and not go tend to your wife?'” Green said Thursday, via ESPN. “That’s something that’s personal to him. That’s something that’s health-related. That’s something that’s personal to his family. This is no different.”

Green said he feels like this has turned “into a political war.” He raises the great question of “why are you pressing this so hard?”

“When you make something so political – not everyone is into politics – then you can also turn those people off…I think there is something to be said for people’s concern about something that is being pressed so hard. Like, why are you pressing this so hard? So much, pressing and pressing and pressing. You have to honor people’s feelings and their own personal beliefs. And I think that’s been lost, when it comes to vaccinated and non-vaccinated. And it kinda sucks that that’s been lost, um, because you’re essentially not giving anyone…you say we live in the land of the free, well, you’re not giving anyone freedom because you’re making people do something essentially…that goes against everything that America stands for, supposedly stands for. I think – No, I know, I’m not in any position to be telling him what he should or should not be doing…As a leader of this team, I’m not going to go to him and say, ‘Hey, man, we really need – .’ No, you do what you feel you want to do…I’m not going to ask him if he got a polio vaccine, why would I ask him if he got a COVID vaccine?”