After previously making the bonkers claim that more than 100 pro athletes died from getting vaccinated against COVID-19, NBA legend John Stockton has upped the ante.
Last week, Stockton joined Michele Tafoya’s podcast Sideline Sanity to preach his anti-vax narratives. During the interview, Tafoya referenced Stockton’s claim that more than 100 pro athletes died from the COVID vaccine and asked the Basketball Hall-of-Famer where that information came from.
“I got it from a lot of places otherwise I would have never had the confidence to share it,” Stockton said without offering specific sources. “That’s the beauty of it. I have quite a system that I go through before I open my mouth, especially with statistics and I knew at the time that 150 was dramatically low.”
Stockton made the bizarre claim during an interview with Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, where the former Utah Jazz superstar was quoted as saying, “I think it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 I believe now, it’s over 100 professional athletes dead – professional athletes – the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court.”
Now nearly one year later, Stockton told Tafoya he’s confident he lowballed the number when he estimated 150 pro athletes died from the vaccine.
“I thought it was in the area of 300. When I went and spoke at the Spokesman-Review, we had a nice interview, and they asked, and then of course whatever FactChecker.org or dot com came out and said ‘well that’s baloney.’ I went back and looked again, I have names, pictures, faces, where they played,” Stockton asserted on Tafoya’s podcast. “I had over 300 at the time, so I felt pretty secure with my little 150. People had to come out and argue that, I had the proof in my hands, the piece of paper with the names. And it’s way more than that now. I think it’s in the thousands now. Don’t quote me on that one, I’m not saying 1,000, but it might be. It’s a big number.”
We won’t quote Stockton on the number of vaccine deaths among pro athletes exceeding 1,000 until he double-checks his sheet, just that he thinks it might. The NBA, NHL, and NFL boasted vaccination rates among their players of 94 percent or better last year. Stockton did not share his sheet of paper with the names, pictures, and faces of people that he has to support his estimation that the number of professional athletes who died from the COVID vaccine could be in the thousands.
Of course, claims of active professional athletes dying from the COVID vaccine are wild conspiracy theories not backed by science or medical professionals. Credit Tafoya for asking Stockton to source his bogus claim. Unfortunately, she didn’t ask any follow-ups after Stockton mindlessly stated, “I have quite a system that I go through before I open my mouth,” without offering any insight into what that system is.
