NBA: Players agree to take 25% cuts in the paychecks, season restart uncertain

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has now come to an agreement with the NBA players to cut their salaries by 25% from the next month i.e., May 15. This agreement comes after the season suspension was extended due to the growing number of coronavirus cases in the USA. Under terms of the agreement, ratified last week by the owners and players’ association, the withholding will begin with the May 15 paychecks. 

Since the games remain cancelled as announced on March 11, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Friday said that the league has still not planned on the resumption of the league and might be able to plan as the situation started getting better. 

Despite the season getting suspended, and no games being played from March 11, the NBA players continued to receive full paychecks till April 15. Three weeks ago, the NBA executives’ salaries were cut by 20 per cent, affecting roughly 100 of the league’s highest earners, including commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum.  

Silver spoke to the Press on a video call and when asked about how the playoffs will be played if the league resumed, he said that the league was “not ready to set a date of how long we can wait before we can no longer continue the season.”

“Everything is on the table, including potentially delaying the start of next season. We are not in a position to make any decisions, and it’s unclear when we will be. We still don’t have enough information to make a decision.” he was quoted as saying to the Miami Herald.

Apart from the 25% salary cut, the players are set to lose 23-26% of their season salary — based on how many games their teams have already played — if games don’t resume. However, the NBA has cited that it does not plan on cancelling the regular season and the league has informed the players would only get to know the fate of this season by June 15, if the season will resume or played with a few games termination.