Suns star Devin Booker made his first appearance at training camp on Friday after his battle with COVID-19.
Booker, who missed media day with the Suns because of the virus but watched it while away from the team, wished there was more basketball talk.
“I am vaccinated, but I feel like that should not be the topic of discussion,” he said after practice. “I stayed at home for media day. Looking for a quote on some type of basketball, and I didn’t see anything, but I guess it’s that time.
The two-time All-Star is fully vaccinated but believes that players should have the right to decide if they want to get the vaccine.
“I’m vaccinated, and that was my decision,” he said. “Me and my family are vaccinated, but I feel like everybody should have their own right and their own decision on what they’re doing with their body, but that was my decision to get vaccinated.”
After he tested positive for COVID, Booker felt that many thought he was not vaccinated, and according to him, he received some backlash.
“Right when I got the virus, people automatically assumed that I wasn’t vaccinated, and I started taking heat for that,” he said. “So, I can only imagine how it feels for people that aren’t vaccinated that are having that pressure of people trying to tell them what to do with their bodies.”
As a whole, Booker thought everything felt like a political debate, and he’s probably right.
However, this is a tricky situation. Players like Andrew Wiggins, Bradley Beal, and Jonathan Isaac have been open about their reluctance to take the vaccine, and with Kyrie Irving, the assumption is that he is unvaccinated because he was not at Nets media day.
With Irving and Wiggins playing in New York and San Francisco, cities with COVID mandates, those two players, without taking the vaccine, will not be able to play in home games, so that’s an issue.
Unfortunately, COVID will be a big story in the NBA this season.
Watch below as Booker talks return to the team, COVID, and more:
