John Stockton has never been shy about expressing controversial views on COVID-19 vaccines, and his recent appearance on The Maverick Approach podcast saw him double down on one of his most disputed claims, that hundreds of athletes have died suddenly after vaccination.
“Oh, absolutely. Yeah. In fact, that was one of the reasons I got in trouble, too, right after the Gonzaga thing… I said, I think at the time I said there were 200 athletes dead on the field recently, immediately after being vaccinated, and they said that’s, you know, fact-checked.”
“Fact check comes on and says, ‘No, John’s lying about this.'”
“Maybe because it was 300 at the time, and it was well over 1,100 before 2023, and I had the names of them. I had their obits, I had all these things so I could back it up to anybody that wanted to see it.”
Stockton pointed to Ed Dowd’s bestselling book Cause Unknown as evidence, describing it as a short but powerful collection of photos and stories of athletes and young people who allegedly died within 48 hours of vaccination.
He also brought up high-profile cases like baseball legend Hank Aaron, who received a COVID-19 shot in January 2021 to encourage vaccinations in the African-American community and died 18 days later.
He also mentioned more recent cardiac incidents involving athletes like Bronny James and Damar Hamlin, framing them as part of a pattern the media avoids discussing. Stockton argued that such events, even if not definitively linked, should prompt deeper investigation.
Stockton’s claim has been widely debunked. According to health experts and fact-checking organizations, there is no credible scientific evidence linking COVID-19 vaccines to a large-scale increase in sudden athlete deaths. Sports cardiologists and public health agencies have said they have not observed the trend Stockton describes, and the data on athlete mortality does not support his numbers.
While the CDC has acknowledged that myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, can occur in rare cases after mRNA vaccination, particularly in young men, they note that the risk is far lower than the risk of heart complications from COVID-19 itself.
This is not Stockton’s first foray into COVID-related controversy. In 2024, he joined a lawsuit against the Washington Attorney General and the Washington Medical Commission, alleging doctors’ free-speech rights were violated for speaking against mainstream pandemic narratives. That case was dismissed in May 2024.
Despite losing his Gonzaga tickets and facing criticism from the public and medical professionals, Stockton remains resolute in his skepticism toward the vaccine and in his belief that athlete deaths are being underreported or misrepresented. As he put it on the podcast, his stance is about asking questions others are afraid to ask, even if it means being labeled a conspiracy theorist.
Stockton’s remarks ensure that he will remain a polarizing figure in the post-COVID sports world, with his legacy as a player now intertwined with his reputation as one of the NBA’s most vocal vaccine critics.
