Starting Friday this week, the NBA will send paychecks that will reflect salary reductions of 25% as agreed with the NBPA, which is a measure to ease the expected financial pressures that the coronavirus pandemic will bring. The reduced wages, however, will not be felt, at least at the start, by the league's so-called high earners.
The league identified five players who will be initially immune from the salary adjustments that were forced by the global virus outbreak and they are: LeBron James, Stephen Curry, John Wall, Blake Griffin, and Paul George.
These five players, however, were not marked to receive special treatment, meaning the pay cut will apply across the board and will not exempt them. The explanation from the NBA, according to CBS Sports, is that these league biggies have arranged with their respective teams to get full payment in advance.
Another three stars, identified as Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry, and James Harden, will not be getting pay cuts as well. This batch, per the league's report, negotiated for partial salary advance and was given the approval.
So when the checks get out, the players mentioned "will essentially have an IOU per paycheck to his team," said the report, citing a story published by ESPN on the matter. It is understood that if the season is eventually canceled, that is if the coronavirus crisis will remain uncontrolled, the IOU amount per paycheck will increase.
League officials have already advertised that if the situation worsens, the salary deduction will need to be increased. For example, if the remaining regular season games are scrapped and the season, when restarted, goes right to the playoffs, players will incur pay cuts of up to 40%.
In the event of a season cancelation, which the NBA is looking to avoid as much as possible, the league warned salary losses of more than $1 billion, affecting all players with standing contracts in the suspended season, estimated at 434.
The amount withheld will be sent back to the coffers of NBA teams, and according to Clutch Points, team owners will be given the discretion on how they plan to use the savings. In most cases, the fund will be earmarked to pay for the salary of regular employees that keep the NBA running on a day-to-day basis.
The NBPA has agreed to take the pay cut because the NBA cannot hold the games and the revenues to fund the wages have stopped flowing in. if the games are resumed and the league's income starts flowing in again, there will be back-pays that players can expect, provided of course that the pandemic has been contained.
