Major sporting leagues all over have certainly been dealt with a significant financial blow following the cancellation of sporting events due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Perhaps none more so than the NBA, who opened the floodgates when they suspended the 2019-20 regular season earlier this month following the positive diagnosis of Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert.
Per ESPN senior insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) are now discussing scenarios for withholding up to 25 percent of players' remaining salaries in a league escrow, in the event that the remaining regular-season games be canceled altogether.
Following the provisions of the Force Majeure clause, or unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract, players will reportedly lose approximately one percent of salary for each canceled game.
This, of course, includes epidemics/pandemics and automatically triggers under the language of CBA. Furthermore, the league will also get an option within 60 days of re-opening and renegotiating CBA with NBPA, which runs until 2025.
The NBA reportedly expressed no interest in executing that option under these current circumstances, sources clarified to Wojnarowski.
Meanwhile, the majority of the infected NBA players have reportedly been cleared of COVID-19. This is a welcome development for the league and its fans.
However, it seems that the league still has plenty of hurdles to overcome in terms of resuming the season. NBA officials are still figuring out the best course of action in terms of holding games without risking the health of its players and fans.
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