NBA Making Changes To Vaccine Mandate For 2022-23 Season

The NBA will be loosening up on their COVID-19 vaccine mandates for the 2022-23 season.

The NBA has put themselves at the forefront for coronavirus policies and mandates in professional sports and over the last three years, commissioner Adam Silver and his staff have worked hard to ensure the safety of all league personnel.

With things around the world starting to settle down a little more in regards to COVID-19, the NBA seems to be taking a different approach to their guidelines and mandates heading into the 2022-23 season.

According to a memo obtained by Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill, the NBA will not have a vaccine mandate in place next season, but will strongly suggest all personnel be up to date with vaccinations. 

Goodwill also mentioned that in this memo, it was stated that periodic testing of unvaccinated players could be allowed pending discussions with the NBPA.

While there was not a league-wide vaccine mandate and requirement for players last season, over 95% of the league’s players were vaccinated to some extent and there was a requirement for team personnel to be vaccinated.

Anyone who was going to be working within 15-feet of players or referees during games needed to be fully vaccinated per NBA policies for the 2021-22 season. This included coaches, training staff members, facility staff, front-office staff, etc.

How this will ultimately impact the NBA and some players around the league who remain unvaccinated is yet to be determined, but it is a good thing to see the league recognizing how everything is starting to get back to normal like it was pre-pandemic in its surrounding communities.

The NBA had no problems with attendance last season in regards to certain region’s vaccine policies other than with the Toronto Raptors given that the Canadian government has their own local vaccination restrictions and mandates for visiting parties.

There is no official start date set yet for the 2022-23 NBA season.