Where do I start? With the nerve of this dude? The apparent ineptitude of his team? With the frustrations of a country who has (by and large) followed the rules, only to watch an athlete try to bypass those same rules? Tennis officials?
Yes. Let's start there.
I am sorry I can't type this any louder but the biggest takeaway here is that TENNIS DOES NOT NEED NOVAK DJOKOVIC, A WALKING HEALTH RISK, AT A SLAM IF HE'S A WALKING HEALTH RISK. And based on the last two years of my experience with how selfish people can be in the midst of a pandemic, you know that if you're someone who is going to claim a medical exemption to avoid a vaccine, then you are also the type of person who will forget his mask and will forego social distancing as well. Why did Tennis Australia think tennis needed him to play in this situation? Why is this dude worth the risk? The answer is that he isn't.
Djokovic claims to want to be loved and then does exactly what you would do if you wanted to be universally hated. He's not doing what's good for the game -- he's doing what's good for him. And putting himself at risk by refusing to get vaccinated isn't even good for him, not in the long term. Djokovic just needs to grow up.
Now, Djokovic is in limbo right now, awaiting a court hearing to determine whether he can stay, and all the information about his case is coming out. Probably the best overview of the situation is here, but there are three things that I will always hold true regardless of how things shape out here:
- This is Djokovic's fault. He should have gotten vaccinated if he wanted to chase history.
- This is the tennis authorities' fault. This is a pandemic and the safety of everyone involved in these events should be paramount. Trying to find a loophole for your dimwit No. 1 player instead of making him get vaccinated shows how little they care about everyone else.
- If he plays -- and even if he wins -- this will have been a disaster. An entire, avoidable, useless, disaster. Especially if he wins. Some of us live in places where people in power are urging people to pretend this pandemic is over even though it obviously isn't. And we wonder why this isn't over yet.
