“I didn’t get sick at all. I lost my smell. That’s it.”
That is what Bradley Beal had to say about his bout with COVID-19 that cost him the chance to play for Team USA in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
Despite losing one of his five major senses, the Washington Wizards star had a lot to say about COVID-19 and the vaccine designed to combat it during the team’s media day.
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Beal bounced from downplaying losing his sense of smell to explaining why he doesn’t feel pressure to get vaccinated to questioning if the vaccine was beneficial at all. Requesting that somebody in the pool of sports reporters explain technical medical information, Beal let it be known that he does not see the COVID vaccine as beneficial.
“I would like an explanation to people with vaccines, why are they still getting COVID?,” the three-time NBA all-star asked. “If that’s something we’re supposed to highly be protected from, that’s funny that it only reduces your chances of going to the hospital. It doesn’t eliminate anyone from getting COVID.”
Coming off the heels of a weekend revelation that Beal denied Russell Westbrook’s advice to request a trade from Washington, the star shooting guard did not mince any words when it came to his thoughts about the vaccine. In spite of science, he, like others including Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins, made it clear he had not and seemingly would not be getting the vaccine.
“I don’t think you can pressure anybody to making a decision about their body or what they put into their body. We can have this conversation about a lot of different topics besides vaccines, too. You can’t necessarily force anybody, I think you kind of let people come into their own about it,” Beal said.
Other stars across the league including Ja Morant and Jayson Tatum acknowledged they had been vaccinated in order to protect those around them and not miss games (certain cities across the league have vaccine mandates in place which would prevent unvaccinated players from playing in those cities) but Beal (and others) have clearly taken a different route.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, especially considering certain players would have to miss games in certain cities and, in turn, miss out on money, but what do you think of Beal’s remarks on the COVID vaccine? Let us know in the comments.
[Via]