Because Adrian Word Yanovsky reporting that on a call with league general managers yesterday, Commissioner Adam Silver told top team executives that the league, as he's been saying, wouldn't jump the line of the general public to get vaccines.

But he did suggest a optimistic timeline that included the possibility of late March and early April for the start of player vaccination, sources said.

Now, even though that's an extremely fluid timeline, many of the league's top players air continuing to express apprehension about receiving the vaccine as well as accepting invitations to participate in league sponsored public service announcements to both bolster broader acceptance of the coronavirus vaccine.

Now, according to watch his sources, a number of factors are contributing to players.

What they're telling union reps what their reluctance is to participate includes uncertainty about taking the vaccine themselves, reluctant to advocate it's used for others and also a little bit of a lack of trust.

First of all, in the government and in the lead to some respect, especially after all these issues with the All Star Game that it was really interesting.

Thio sie whoa enumerates those in his report and fizz.

What would you say to a player on your team about the coronavirus vaccine, especially understanding the situation?

A lot of these players air in with not having public trust in a government that is complete, that is earned.

See, that is definitely earned, that they don't have trust there.

Well, the reality is that 70 plus percent of the league is African American, right?

And so the demographics doesn't change just because you put a logo on your jersey.

The African American community community as a whole is vaccine hesitant because of the past, how the government has dealt with our community and done things to our community.

From a medical standpoint, that obviously creates pause.

And so that doesn't change just because guys air in the league.

And so we have to be mined for that.

And I remember when I was trying to get guys to get flu shots and I didn't have the education.

I was still thinking as an African American kid that grew up in the neighborhood that was fearful of of doctors in a lot of way, and I sat down with Dr Callahan of the Knicks.

She broke down the flu shot to me.

She got all of the misconceptions out in front of me and told me you know, the truth about the vaccine And I sat down with the players.

She sat down with the players.

We gave them the education.

So now they could make a sound decision based on fax.

And we had a big plus the guys that did it, and we created herd immunity on our team, and I respected the guys that didn't want to do it, and we didn't shame them or do anything like that.

But we tried to give them all of the information that we could possibly give them so they could make a sound choice.

Right?

And Rachel, I think the big word that stood out to me that you said, is trust right?

And not only do the players not trust the government, but they right now, they don't trust the N B A.

No more because of what's going on with the All Star game, right?

You know, the n b a going back on their word.

And you know, it was so many times that I was saying, especially in the bubble, how the players Association and the NBA were coming together and there was a beautiful thing to see.

Well, I think the All Star Game caused a bit of separation and that trust again.

And I think dealing with this covert in this vaccine situation, this is a chance for the NBA to gain that trust back off their players.

Now.

What I would do is, if I'm the NBA, I would make it optional.

I would say Look, the vaccine is available.

Each individual player.

You could choose your route on how you want to go about it.

Whether you want to take it or not is your choice.

I wouldn't force it.

I wouldn't do a committee voting.

I will let each individual person decide whether or not they want to take the vaccine.

And I will say I think the issues between players and the MBA Right now it's more of a speed bump.

I think there is a basic trust between the league and the Union.

I think that has been built over the years and I think it still exists.

But there is a little speed bump right now, and then the lack of trust of what you were referring to fizz.

If if people don't know what coach business talking about, look up the Tuskegee Tuskegee study.

Look up a lot of the treatment of African Americans by the medical community over the centuries in this country, and you understand why there is a reluctance.

But I will say I will say that the MBA has done what you did fizz is that they have put their chief medical officer, who is an African American man in front of their players and said, Hey, have some mandatory zooms here and get educated.

Rachel vaccines aren't even getting to the African American community today.

Why should they trust?

They can't even get the vaccine in their communities.

It's totally disproportionate.

White people to black people and Hispanics, Latinos, people.

It's like double that aren't getting the vaccine because they don't have the availability.

So why should they trust the medical field?

Very complicated.

And of course, you have the players of the MBA affected, just like the general public is.

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