Hall-of-famer Charles Barkley believes all professional sports leagues should require players to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and branded those who have refused to get the shot as 'a**holes.'
In an interview with CNBC, the former basketball star announced that he received the COVID vaccine and recommended others do the same.
'Yes I'm vaccinated,' he said. 'Everybody should be vaccinated, period.'
'The only people who are not vaccinated are just a**holes,' he said, adding that he believes professional sports leagues should mandate their players and staff members get the shot.
'Can you imagine if one of these guys that are not vaccinated, if they get one of the players' kids, wives, girlfriends, moms and dads sick, and they die over some unnecessary conspiracy bulls***? I think that would be tragic,' he said, and compared professional sports leagues to any other business.
'There's s*** you can't do at work, and there's s*** you have to do at work,' Barkley, 58, said. 'So every workplace has rules, and I think one of the rules [should be] that guys have to be vaccinated.'
NBA star Charles Barkley said he thinks all professional sports leagues should mandate their players be vaccinated against the coronavirus in a recent interview with CNBC
He played basketball professionally for the Philadelphi 76ers
He also called anyone who refuses to get a COVID vaccine an 'a**hole' and said players should not get sick because of 'conspiracy bulls***.' Here, anti-vaxxers protested the requirement to show proof of vaccination to get into the Foo Fighters concert at Madison Square Garden in June
A large percentage of professional athletes have received the vaccine, the leagues report, but the NFL, NBA and MLB do not require their players to get vaccinated.
The NFL and the MLB require those who interface directly with the players to get vaccinated, however, and the NFL released new guidelines that would penalize unvaccinated players with stricter protocols - and possible fines or team forfeits if an unvaccinated player violates the new rules.
As of July 23, the number of NFL players who had gotten the jab reached 80 percent, with nine teams reporting 90 percent or more were vaccinated, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. Allen Sills, the league's medical director, said at the time that nearly all Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees - those who deal directly with the players - had been vaccinated, and there were only five teams that had less than 70 percent of its players receive a shot.
He said he was optimistic that the number of vaccinated players will continue to rise as training camps reopen.
'I think we are off to an excellent start,' he said. 'Those numbers are much higher than we're seeing in society as a whole.'
The MLB, meanwhile, announced in June, that a 23rd team had reached the 85 percent vaccination threshold for players and on-field personnel, with 85.4 percent of its Tier 1 and 2 staff members fully vaccinated and 86.5 percent receiving at lest one dose.
Once a team in the league reaches an 85 percent vaccination rate among Tier 1 and 2 employees - the
