The NBA has seen 96 percent of its players get vaccinated against COVID-19, but among those who have decided to not get the jab, a popular refrain has been that they’re waiting because they are in the midst of doing their own research. It is a line that has been used by some folks who still are not vaccinated despite three separate vaccines being available to Americans, and ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy has a question: what, exactly, are you researching?
Van Gundy was on the call for Thursday night’s preseason game between the Miami Heat and the Houston Rockets. With the Heat up by double-digits in the fourth quarter, Van Gundy, as he is wont to do, started talking about something other than the game. He used this opportunity to challenge those who drop that line as justification.
"You know what drives me crazy? 'I'm doing my own research.' I would like someone to answer this: What does that look like? You doing your own research? Are you doing studies yourself? Are you in lab nightly? I don't understand what that means."
– Jeff Van Gundy didn’t hold back pic.twitter.com/3XAzn0CtES
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 8, 2021
“I would like someone to answer this question: What does that look like, you doing your own research?” Van Gundy said. “Are you doing studies yourself? Are you in the lab on a nightly basis? What are you doing? I don’t understand what that means, ‘I’m doing my own research.’ How about this, we got smart people, a lot smarter than anybody in the NBA, who’s already done the research.”
The mini rant came on the same day that the Brooklyn Nets listed Kyrie Irving as ineligible to participate in the team’s first home preseason game, which takes place on Friday, due to his resistance to getting vaccinated.
