NBA paychecks are due Wednesday, which created a showdown in a league missing out on significant revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Owners reportedly wanted to withhold 50 percent of those paychecks and going forward. Players reportedly countered with a 25 percent reduction beginning in mid-May.
For now, the status quo remains, as desired by the National Basketball Players Association.
Shams Charania of The Athletic:
The NBA and its teams will send full paychecks to players on next payment date, April 15, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 9, 2020
Players will lose money due to this stoppage. The Collective Bargaining Agreement distributes revenue nearly evenly between owners and players. So, both sides will feel a hit.
The biggest question: When?
So far, owners are suffering the losses. Players are still being paid on time.
But players will eventually relinquish a portion of their paychecks this season. Even the NBPA’s counterproposal ceded that, and the union has warned agents to prepare.
The NBA can withhold salaries through force majeure. But that requires canceling games. According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, that won’t happen until May at the earliest.
So, that leaves negotiation rather than just relying on CBA mechanisms. Both sides want to maintain some semblance of the current system, including avoiding a huge salary-cap drop next season.
If players want to get paid a “normal” amount next season, they’ll have to relinquish the lost money at another time. Some of that will happen this season, when some owners are hurting.
It won’t start Wednesday. But paycheck reductions are coming soon enough.