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NBA and Players Association are negotiating a pay reduction

The suspended season is going to result in reduced salary. It’s just a question of how much.

Oklahoma City Thunder v Golden State Warriors Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

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.

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.

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.

However, those players may end up having to sacrifice money further down the road to even things out.

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.

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