Help me settle an argument about how teams pay players

[Certain]

Just off the bat, full disclosure.....this is in part to do with Royce White. Before everyone makes for the exit, hear me out . I've seen that on a lot of message boards people are tired of talking about the guy, but something he said during a radio interview sparked a debate about how players are paid. At the end of the debate, no one was closer to any agreements, mainly because we couldn't find any info on the subject. I'll explain.

During the interview, the dj makes a comment to the effect of, "People are getting fed up, because you are getting paid to play basketball, yet you can't just get over your fears...." Thats not the exact quote but thats pretty much what was said. Thats when Royce said that he hasn't received a paycheck yet.

That sparked a debate in the office. Now me, I took it at face value. I felt like if the guy said he hadn't gotten a paycheck, then he hasn't gotten a paycheck. Others also felt that way, but some felt that it was BS and that he had gotten paid, and this was just one more thing for Royce White to get a little sympathy for. That was an understandable argument given the perception about the guy, but at the same time there was no way to know if it was true.

The argument made on behalf of the people who thought it was BS was the fact that there are countless articles stating that White got suspended without pay, which implied that at some point before that suspension he had gotten paid. The problem was that none of those articles cited sources or even said for sure that he was getting paid before he got suspended. It was almost as if "Suspended without pay" is just the name that was given to the suspension, as opposed to them actually stopping payments that he once received.

This all led to a debate about whether a player who hasn't gotten paid can be fined. Some felt that a player who wasn't receiving money from a team, couldn't be fined, thus the fact that White had been fined by the Rockets, meant that he had gotten paid. Others believed that he didn't have to get paid to get fined and that whatever fines were accrued would be settled when the first paychecks did begin to go to White. Both are sound arguments, but again, without a source of info, there is no way to be sure.

I attempted to comb over a little of the CBA Faq I found on this site which someone else posted, but I didn't really see anything in there that would help settle the debate. So I'm posting here to see if there is anyone a bit more versed on the subject and if there are any links, articles, or whatever else that might explain how White not receiving a check is or isn't possible.

[DBoys]

If he hasn't been paid, he must have been suspended without pay while the issues were being settled. Notice the required pay schedule as outlined in the FAQ, and without a suspension he would have been required to be paid 11/15, 12/1, 12/15, 1/1, and 1/15 so far .

Any "Refusal to play" (which is what he had been doing) allows a team to unilaterally suspend without pay if they wish. Teams have no obligation to publicize such actions when taken.

FAQ
110. Are players paid on a regular schedule? Are there other ways to pay players beside regular paychecks?

The league's standard paydays are on the 1st and 15th of each month, beginning November 15. For contracts signed under the current CBA, the default is 24 paychecks paid over one calendar year. Teams and players whose salaries are over the minimum salary can also agree to a 12-check or 36-check schedule, paid over six months or 18 months, respectively. For contracts signed under the previous CBA the standard is 12 paychecks paid over six months, with teams and players also able to negotiate a schedule of 24 paychecks paid over 12 months.

There are various ways for players to be paid at times other than the standard paydays, including signing bonuses, advances, loans, and deferred compensation. However the basic rule is that players must be paid at least 20% of their base compensation, not including bonuses, on regular league paydays. Players cannot have signing bonuses, advances, loan repayment schedules or deferred compensation that cause this rule to be violated.

[Certain]

I did see that when I read over the Faq the other day. But if that is the simple answer then the guy just flat out lied. I mean, he's human, so its not beyond a possibility or anything, its just that from the tone of the interview, it didn't sound deceptive or anything. Almost like when he said it, there was more to it, like there was red tape behind the reason he hadn't received a paycheck. I don't know, I guess I was expecting more based on his statement. Like there is more to it.

[DBoys]

I did see that when I read over the Faq the other day. But if that is the simple answer then the guy just flat out lied.

I'm not sure if I follow what "lie" he must have told. Although I'm not doubting he could have been lying his butt off.

He said he hasn't been paid. But if he hasn't been paid, that would be the truth not a lie, right?

I listened to the audio and maybe I missed something in the back-n-forth, who knows. but didn't hear anything else about pay, nothing about red tape or technicalities on the pay, just a simple statement that he hasn't been paid anything yet. But if he has been on the suspended-without-pay status all season, and said he hasn't gotten paid, I don't see any controversy. Of course, if he has only been suspended for a few weeks, then yes he lied his azz off.

As for White's broader situation, my impression is that he gives an appearance of transparency because he's very eloquent and persuasive (both verbally and when he writes), making it easy to simply accept his account of things. But then when you evaluate the content, I see lots of red flags and end up feeling that so much of what he says is self-serving and convenient, that I am left with serious doubts about the veracity of all of it.

Much of my doubt stems from his history. Despite the way he comes off (polished, nice, rational, eloquent), when we look closer we see a guy who has had SERIOUS problems with doing the right thing, including criminal acts, which means he's not simply been some helpless victim of the system over the years. And he's run afoul of authority on a regular basis, even when the setting changes, using "victim of anxiety disorder" as his Get Out of Jail Free excuse for whatever wrong behavior he displays.

Has he gotten so practiced at explaining away bad behavior, that he's learned to easily and convincingly spin it into someone else's fault? In 2013 when you hear him talk, he comes off with the explanations and the act of a martyr for a cause, but it raises major red flags for me that we never hear him accept any responsibility for problems that have arisen - it's always someone else's fault, the system is flawed, and so on, and he's self-portrayed as one simply waiting for everyone else to get their act together.

(Listen to that interview, where he portrays everything between him and the Rox as some sort of collegial "figuring things out for a sick guy" process and nothing more. Then compare it to the guy who posted twitter screeds against the team on multiple occasions, read those nasty accusations, remember he refused to show up or be held accountable to anything, wouldn't even see the docs they had hired to help, and it doesn't sound like the same story. I'm left to think we are seeing the talent of a master spinmaster at work in that interview, but we'll see.)

Over time, we'll get a better handle on who he really is. BS can only deceive for so long, and then the truth will rear its inconvenient head. For now the eloquence makes him easy to believe, but I'm wary of buying in since the actions, history, and sense of responsibility don't ever seem to correspond.

[Certain]

I just assumed that he wasn't on the Suspended Without Pay list. That would be something that would have been easy to find out right? Wouldn't the Rockets have disclosed that? And from the articles I read, he didn't go on the suspended without pay list until recently after his refusal to follow a few rules. Thats why I said he flat out lied. If what you posted about the pay periods is true, which we know it to be, and he wasn't put on any sort of status, then he would have had to have gotten paid.

As far as Royce and his situation, I'm a very hard person to fool on some things. This whole crusade for mental health, I've cautious in that regard. I'll listen to what he has to say but since this is one of those situations thats breaching unfamiliar territory, I don't want to call BS without at least doing a little research.

[DBoys]

1 How can we know?
We would know he was suspended if the team made it public. They have no obligation to disclose to the public, however. Someone who had access to things inside the league office would know, but you might have a prob getting it leaked from there given the medical issue at play and the privacy laws on such matters. Given his aggressiveness on pushing this as a medical-related issue, the team might have been under the same concerns.

2 What about the articles?
I know what the articles said - he had been suspended for Failure to Perform - which doesn't necessarily rule out the existence of a suspension prior to that date. These things are usually easy to ascertain because one day the player is playing and the next he isn't ...but here, he went from not playing to not playing.

3 It's relevant to note that when he refused to report in Jan, there were MULTIPLE instances prior to that where he had also refused to report. So it could be that he was suspended then as well, but no one called the media and said so.

4 It's a contractual situation so they couldn't have refused to pay him without him being suspended for some sort of violation of the contract. And I can't imagine that the Rox would have been willing to pay him while he was refusing to play, so I think he had to have been suspended from the outset, until he elected to play. But I could be wrong on how they opted to deal with it.

5 I'm interested in seeing how this unfolds, because I think if he's been lying to us, the truth will eventually escape, and then the drama will be insane. But if the drama is now a thing of the past, it will evolve into a great Tale of Healing and Progress.

[Certain]

Hmmmm. So unless someone from the Rockets or Royce White reveals that he had been suspended, then we'll just continue to not know for sure.