Report: NBA won’t commit to players’ pay beyond April 1
>>NEW YORK: NBA players will get their paychecks as scheduled on April 1, but the fate of salaries beyond that date is unclear, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Friday night.
The next payday after April 1 would be April 15. At that point, it’s possible the NBA could cut or suspend salaries with the league still shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a league memo sent on Friday to the teams, Wojnarowski reported.
The lost revenue from the shutdown reportedly could prompt the league to invoke a clause in the collective bargaining agreement that permits reducing players’ salaries by 1/92.6 per cancelled game due to “catastrophic circumstances”. The list of such conditions includes war, natural disasters and epidemics/pandemics, per the report.
The NBA regular season had been scheduled to end April 15. While all teams have played between 63 and 67 of their 82 games (77 percent to 82 percent), ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported that players will have received approximately 90 percent of their salaries once they get their April 1 checks.
The league closed down on March 11, after a positive coronavirus test for Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert was shared with the team and the NBA. Commissioner Adam Silver announced
March 12 that the hiatus would last at least 30 days.
Wojnarowski reported last Sunday that NBA owners are preparing for a scenario in which games won’t resume before mid-June — the point when the play-offs are normally concluding.
Silver said on Wednesday in an
ESPN interview that the league could consider restarting its schedule with games played in empty arenas.
The NBA commissioner added that it’s possible the 2020-21 season could end up running December through August instead of October through June.