FILE – Former Gonzaga participant John Stockton talks about his profession throughout a Nationwide Collegiate Basketball Corridor of Fame induction occasion, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017, in Kansas Metropolis, Mo. Gonzaga has suspended Stockton’s basketball season tickets after the Corridor of Fame level guard refused to adjust to the college’s masks mandate. Stockton, considered one of Gonzaga’s most outstanding alums, confirmed the transfer in a Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, interview with The Spokesman-Assessment. (AP Picture/Colin E. Braley, File)
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Gonzaga has suspended John Stockton’s basketball season tickets after the Corridor of Fame level guard refused to adjust to the college’s masks mandate.
Stockton, considered one of Gonzaga’s most outstanding alums, confirmed the transfer in a Saturday interview with The Spokesman-Assessment.
“Principally, it got here all the way down to, they had been asking me to put on a masks to the video games and being a public determine, somebody a little bit bit extra seen, I caught out within the crowd a little bit bit,” Stockton mentioned. “And subsequently they obtained complaints and felt like from regardless of the higher-ups — these weren’t mentioned, however from no matter it was increased up — they had been going to need to both ask me to put on a masks or they had been going to droop my tickets.”
Stockton has come out towards COVID-19 vaccines, masks mandates and different protecting measures. Final June, he participated in a documentary titled “COVID and the Vaccine: Fact, Lies and Misconceptions Revealed.”
Within the interview with the Spokane newspaper, Stockton claimed with out proof that greater than 100 skilled athletes have died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I feel it’s extremely recorded now, there’s 150 I consider now, it’s over 100 skilled athletes useless — skilled athletes — the prime of their life, dropping useless which can be vaccinated, proper on the pitch, proper on the sector, proper on the courtroom,” Stockton mentioned.
Consultants have advised the AP there may be “no scientific proof” that both COVID-19 or the mRNA vaccines have elevated sudden cardiac arrest, sometimes called SCA, amongst athletes.
The false declare that enormous numbers of athletes are collapsing or dying as a result of COVID-19 vaccines has circulated on social media for months, notably amongst anti-vaccine circles, and has been rejected by medical specialists.
In the meantime, public well being specialists say masks are a key virus-prevention software which can be simplest when worn by numerous folks.
In a press release, Gonzaga officers mentioned they're dedicated to implementing well being and security protocols, which embrace an indoor masks mandate. The college additionally requires proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a detrimental take a look at taken with the final 72 hours to attend house athletic occasions. As a approach to implement the masks mandate, Gonzaga has suspended its meals and beverage gross sales at video games.
“We is not going to communicate to particular actions taken with any particular people,” the assertion learn. “We take enforcement of COVID-19 well being and security protocols severely and can proceed to judge how we will greatest mitigate the dangers posed by COVID-19 with applicable measures.”
Stockton performed for Gonzaga from 1980 to 1984, when the Zags had been a middling program that by no means posted a document higher than 17-11. The crew has since retired his No. 12. A life-sized poster of Stockton in motion hangs in a concourse of the McCarthey Athletic Middle, a part of a gallery of Gonzaga greats.
The Spokane native was a first-round draft choose of the Utah Jazz in 1984 and set an NBA document with 15,806 profession assists earlier than his retirement in 2003. He and his household have lived in Spokane since then, and he has been a fixture at Gonzaga basketball video games.
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