This whole tedious, rambling, jumbled incoherence was put on Instagram by Beg Bugs himself:
"this is about my life and what I am choosing to do”…
"The financial consequences, I know I do not want to even do that. But it is reality that in order to be in New York City, in order to be on a team, I have to be vaccinated. I chose to be unvaccinated, and that was my choice, and I would ask you all to just respect that choice.
"I am going to just continue to stay in shape, be ready to play, be ready to rock out with my teammates and just be part of this whole thing. This is not a political thing; this is not about the NBA, not about any organization. This is about my life and what I am choosing to do.
"You got to make these convictions yourself. ‘Yo, you are going to lose out on money; you are going to lose out on this.' So what. It is not about the money, baby. It is about choosing what is best for you.
"You really think I want to lose money? You think I really want to give up on my dream to go after a championship? You think I really just want to give up my job? Think I really just want to sit at home and not go after the things with my teammates that I have been able to grow with, to learn with, to learn that it takes sacrifice in this space. ... You think I want to give up my livelihood because of a mandate, because I don't have accommodations, because I am unvaccinated? Come on.
[I’m] “still uncertain about a lot of things, and that is OK."
"This is my life. I get to do whatever I want with this, this is one body that I get here. And you are telling me what to do with my body. ... This has everything to do with what is going on in our world. And I am being grouped into something that is bigger than just the game of basketball.
“Inam staying grounded in what I believe in. It is as simple as that. It is not about being anti-vax or about being on one side or the other. It is just really about being true to what feels good for me. ... If I am going to be demonized for having more questions and taking my time to make a decision with my life, that is just what it is. ... I know the consequences of the decisions that I make with my life. I am not here to sugarcoat any of that.
"Nobody is hijacking this voice. See if they play this on their TV channels and if they play this actual truth somewhere before you start talking about me and what I am doing with my life. And no, I am not retiring. And no, I am not going and leaving this game like this. There is still so much more work to do."
To all of which Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke for all of us saying, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
