The former Utah Jazz point guard confirmed the school suspended his tickets in an interview Saturday.
“Basically, it came down to, they were asking me to wear a mask to the games and being a public figure, someone a little bit more visible, I stuck out in the crowd a little bit,” Stockton said. “And therefore they received complaints and felt like from whatever the higher-ups — those weren’t discussed, but from whatever it was higher up — they were going to have to either ask me to wear a mask or they were going to suspend my tickets.”
Stockton told the Spokesman-Review he and the school had “been in discussions about various COVID things for a couple years now.”
CNN has reached out to Stockton for comment.
In the documentary interview, Stockton seems to suggest more than 100 professional athletes have died due to vaccination, yet there is no evidence to support such a claim.
“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,” Stockton said in the documentary interview.
Reports in CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) are voluntary — anyone can submit one — and a report does not mean a vaccine caused the adverse event it describes. The CDC notes that reports might be inaccurate, coincidental or unverifiable. The CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration use VAERS to look for patterns that require more investigation.
“Gonzaga University continues to work hard to implement and enforce the health and safety protocols mandated by the State and by University policy, including reinforcing the indoor masking requirement,” the school said in a statement on Sunday.
“Attendees at basketball games are required to wear face masks at all times,” the school’s statement continued. “We will not speak to specific actions taken with any specific individuals. We take enforcement of COVID-19 health and safety protocols seriously and will continue to evaluate how we can best mitigate the risks posed by COVID-19 with appropriate measures. The recent decision to suspend concessions in McCarthey Athletic Center is an example of this approach. Gonzaga University places the highest priority on protecting the health and safety of students, employees and the community.”
Stockton said in the Spokesman-Review interview his relationship with the school is not permanently fractured but “suggested it could take time to repair.”
“I think certainly it stresses (the relationship with Gonzaga). I’m pretty connected to the school,” Stockton said. “I’ve been part of this campus since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. I was just born a couple blocks away and sneaking into the gym and selling programs to get into games since I was a small boy. So, it’s strained but not broken, and I’m sure we’ll get through it, but it’s not without some conflict.”
CNN Health’s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.