In recent years, Kyrie Irving and Jonathan Isaac are the only NBA players who have actually suffered for their beliefs. They stood their ground and felt the negative consequences as a result. Regardless of their respective positions and whether or not I agree, I respect that.
Why? Suffering because of stupid beliefs only makes them stupider. Nothing worth respect.
I happen to believe in body autonomy and freedom, so I align with both, but even if I didn’t I would respect their principles.
No, you happen to believe in your own self-concerned conceptions of bodily autonomy and freedom. Different thing
Right. Because the right to or not to take a medication is not a freedom, it’s a “self concerned” freedom. Do you realize how foolish you sound?
When it is directly related to you killing other people, yes, that is a self-concerned freedom.
I'd rather sound foolish than heartless, but you're somehow nailing both 
They are two of the best young athlete in the world, Covid poses no risk to them. In fact, there is a good argument that the vaccine actually poses more risk to them. So why would they take the vaccine? Because unvaccinated are going to kill the vaccinated? What an asinine like of thinking. Whatever. I have to interest in continuing this Covid conversation.
My larger point is that Kyrie stood for his beliefs and suffered real consequences, potentially millions, unlike other NBA players, like LeBron James, who will prop themselves up like a modern day Muhammad Ali, or other athletes who suffered real belief consequences, but are totally gutless when an issue comes to the forefront that could negatively impact their earning potential. When it comes to China, for example, LeBron James will shut up and dribble. I have no respect for that.
Perhaps you should look at it this way:
The NBA is a business and it is based on people being able to perform over a specified schedule. They don't play pickup. A communicable disease threatens that business model. The threat to life is the most important concern, but other health concerns and at the base of it, the operating tolerances of the league also matter.
Just having too many players and team personnel getting sick during the season is a major threat to the business model. That's where all that money comes from. With communicable diseases, getting the transmission rate below a certain threshold is the difference between whether infections spread widely or not. This is not just about death. It's about managing a problem effectively in total.
This could kick off another round of arguments about efficacy, but the prevailing medical opinion is that vaccines do reduce the transmission rate by roughly half, and definitely reduce recovery problems.
Bodily autonomy isn't social autonomy. My freedom to not work with you because I think you are careless is also a freedom. He did what he wanted to do, and got paid fewer millions of dollars, because he didn't support the business model. No one put him in jail.
If every player acted like Kyrie, the league would have failed to deliver its product. Not because the players would die, but just because the NBA wouldn't be able to operate in a higher infection environment. And even if you disagree with that analysis, the league, and really any business should have the right to make such judgements about operating during an infectious disease pandemic.
