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The coronavirus has resulted in the suspension — and possibly the eventual cancellation — of the 2019-20 NBA season. And with that suspension comes a serious financial toll for many people and businesses.
The teams, owners, and league will lose revenue due to the lost games. The TV providers lose revenue due to the lack of games to broadcast. The stadium employees lose revenue because of no work.
And it appears that the players will lose revenue as well.
According to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are currently in negotiations as to how much player salary should decrease.
The NBA is proposing a 50% pay reduction to players, beginning on April 15, which is the final day of the originally scheduled regular season. The Players Association is proposing a 25% pay reduction beginning in mid-May.
Sources: The NBA is proposing to the NBPA that players take a 50 percent paycheck reduction beginning April 15. The NBPA has counter-proposed a 25 percent reduction of paychecks starting in mid-May.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 3, 2020
For those wondering, setting the date after the regular season would still result in a large pay loss for players. The majority of NBA players are not just paid during the regular season, but rather bi-monthly throughout the entire course of the calendar year, according to the NY Times’ Marc Stein. As a result, players could be losing a huge amount of money.
The vast majority of players are on 12-month payment plans and will have received only 10 of their 24 checks for the 2019-20 regular season by the time April 1 payouts are complete. – Brooklyn’s Garrett Temple of the @TheNBPA told @joevardon and @sam_amick there are more than 400
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 31, 2020
Stein adds that 20 NBA players — including nine who are clients of LeBron James’ well-known agent, Rich Paul and Klutch Sports — have player-friendly deals that have given them advanced and accelerated paychecks.
Nine who secured these all-you-can-get deals, which pay out 90-plus percent of their 2019-20 salaries by April 1, are represented by Klutch Sports on contracts structured and negotiated by agent Rich Paul and attorney Mark Termini
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 31, 2020
However, those players may end up having to sacrifice money further down the road to even things out.
Meaning that the select group of NBA players who have already received the vast majority of their 2019-20 salaries would eventually have to make paybacks through a different mechanism ... likely funds withheld from next season's contract
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 1, 2020
Here’s hoping that the Players Association — which is led by president Chris Paul, and features former Golden State Warriors champion Andre Iguodala as first vice president — can get the best of these negotiations.