Longtime NBA ref Ken Mauer reveals he was sidelined for season due to vaccine mandate

Longtime NBA referee Ken Mauer revealed that he’s missed the ongoing season because he refused to comply with the vaccine mandate for officials – and now he’s accusing the league of coercing his colleagues into getting the injection.

‘You can call it whatever you want: forced, coerced,’ Mauer told sports media personality Jason Whitlock on a recent podcast.

The league and the National Basketball Referees Association previously reached a collective-bargaining agreement requiring all officials to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Mauer, a veteran of 33 NBA seasons, told Whitlock that he was one of 19 refs who did not want the vaccine, but just one of four that remains unvaccinated.

All the others relented under pressure from the league, Mauer told Whitlock.  

‘There are many referees who were forced to because they have children, they have families, and they have bills to pay,’ Mauer said. ‘They’re scared and I’m not. I’m never going to take the vaccine.’

NBA spokesman did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment. 

Although league officials and most team employees are required to be vaccinated, NBA players did not face any mandates besides local government regulations. 

To explain his reason for refusing the injection, Mauer pointed to his catholic faith and claimed that the vaccine ‘has aborted fetal cells.’

‘Whether in the testing stage or in the actual ingredient,’ he said.

Aborted fetal cells are not used in the mRNA vaccines, according to the Associated Press and other sources.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine uses cells replicated from aborted tissue, while Pfizer and Moderna made their vaccines by testing fetal tissue aborted in 1973, according to Los Angeles County health officials.

Mauer, who is known to stay in good physical shape and professes to be a health fanatic, also claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines can change recipients’ DNA.

‘The mRNA that’s in this vaccine, whether people want to believe it or not, screws with or has an effect on your own DNA,’ he told Whitlock. ‘It changes who you are as a human being.

‘Our Lord Jesus Christ created you,’ Mauer continued. ‘This vaccine is shooting mRNA into your system, which is altering your DNA. That’s against what every Christian believes in. That’s against our faith. This is the way God created us. I’m not saying I can’t get stitches or I can’t repair a knee. That has nothing to do with your DNA as a human being. That’s what this vaccine is doing to people. I won’t allow that happen to me.’

COVID-19 do not interact with recipients’ DNA, according to the CDC.

Mauer is among the most experienced referees in NBA history, and was an athlete in his younger days.

The St. Paul native attended the University of Minnesota, where he played baseball and was named to the All-Conference team. In fact, his younger cousin Joe Mauer was a six-time All-Star for the Minnesota Twins and remains one of the most decorated high school athletes in state history.

Mauer was convicted of felony tax evasion in 2000 over hi failure to pay taxes on $26,500 of additional income he received by changing first-class airfare into coach tickets. He denied having any intention over committing the crime, and ultimately served five months of prison, five months of home detention, and performed 800 hours of community service.