Last week the NBA announced unvaccinated players who miss games won’t be paid. The league’s no pay policy tipped off a new punchline at Saturday Night Live.
Season 47 of the NBC sketch comedy series premiered this weekend. After taking on President Biden’s infrastructure plan, the COVID-19 false positive fiasco at The View, and R. Kelly’s sex trafficking conviction, the show turned to the National Basketball Association’s new vaccine rule.
“The NBA announced that unvaccinated players will not be paid for any games missed due to local vaccine mandates,” said “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che. “But that won’t matter. NBA players have a long, proud history of losing money because they refuse to use protection.”
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The studio audience groaned as Che seemingly mocked pro basketball players for paying child support to women they impregnate after hooking up.
Che’s co-host Colin Jost thought the joke was a little out-of-bounds and quipped: “I’m glad I didn’t tell that joke.”
Despite getting skewered by Che for avoiding the vaccine, professional basketball players have a higher vaccination rate than the nation as a whole, according to National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts.
“Over 90 percent of our players are fully vaccinated. Nationally, on average only 55 percent of Americans are,” Roberts said last week. “The real story is not why vaccination isn’t mandated in the NBA. The real story for proponents of vaccination is how can we emulate the players in the NBA.”
Watch the SNL clip below.