NBA players could potentially lose a significant portion of their guaranteed salary due to the season suspension following the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The 2019-20 NBA season was suspended on March 11th following Rudy Gobert’s positive test for coronavirus, and with lockdown conditions being enforced in certain areas across the country, it’s unclear when any sports leagues will be able to resume business this year.
In a memo sent to NBA teams on Friday, the league announced that players will receive a paycheck on April 1st, but according to ESPN, the league could withhold a percentage of future payments while the season remains suspended due to the force majeure provision in the current collective bargaining agreement.
Via ESPN:
“Force majeure allows for the withholding of 1/92.6 of a player’s seasonal salary per canceled game based upon catastrophic circumstances. The provision encompasses several scenarios including war, natural disasters and epidemics/pandemics. (For the purposes of force majeure, the league considers each team to have played five preseason games, 82 regular-season games and 5.6 playoff games.)
The NBA plans to inform teams and players ahead of the April 15 payment date about the league’s intentions, the memo said.”
While that may not sound like a lot of money, it could amount to around 20 percent of a player’s salary for the year if the regular season is not completed.
