Vaccine Hesitant Caribbean Roots NBA Player Caves

By NAN Sports Editor

News Americas, LOS ANGELES, CA, Mon. Oct. 4, 2021: A vaccine hesitant NBA player with Caribbean roots has been vaccinated, the Golden State’s coach said Sunday.

Andrew Wiggins, 26, the Golden State Warriors forward, had sought  a religious exemption from San Francisco’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement.

But the League said last week that it had reviewed and denied his request for the exemption, a decision that would have barred Wiggins from playing home games.

“He just told me today that he was fine with us acknowledging it and that will be the end of it,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters.

Had he not been vaccinated Wiggins would have been restricted from playing games in his home state of California. The NBA flexed its muscle last week taking aim at the vaccine resisters’ bank accounts.

Wiggins was born in Ontario and raised in the nearby Vaughan portion of Thornhill, Ontario to Barbados-born former Olympic track and field sprinter Marita Payne-Wiggins and former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins, an American.

His parents met as student athletes at Florida State University.

On February 6, 2020, Wiggins and two draft picks were traded from the Timberwolves to the Golden State Warriors, in exchange for Jacob Evans, D’Angelo Russell and Omari Spellman.