NBA, Union Extend Deadline To Terminate Collective Bargaining Agreement

[RealGM Wiretap]

The NBA and NBPA have reached an agreement to extend through the September the 60-day window that preserves the league's right to terminate the current Collective Bargaining Agreement by use of the force majeure clause. 

The original 60-day window was set to close this week.

The agreement to push back the deadline allows the NBA and union to gather a clearer picture of the economic losses and bargain on a number of crucial financial issues including salary caps and luxury tax thresholds. 

During a conference call with members of the NBPA membership on Friday, Silver began to prepare the players for the harsh financial realities.

"This CBA was not built for an extended pandemic," Silver said on the call, according to the audio tape. "There's not a mechanism in it that works to properly accept a cap when you've got so much uncertainty; when we'd be going in next season saying, 'Well, our revenue could be $10 billion or it could be $6 billion. Or maybe it could be less.'"

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/ESPN

[Sam195]

Bring in a hard salary cap like the NHL and stop overpaying B and C level superstars. Role players and rookies are underpaid in the status quo. Small market teams always screwed over.

[objectivefan]

Bring in a hard salary cap like the NHL and stop overpaying B and C level superstars. Role players and rookies are underpaid in the status quo. Small market teams always screwed over.

can you provide an example of a "small market team" being screwed over by the "soft cap"?

The NFL has a hard cap, the NFL is also the epitome of a league where rookies and role players are underpaid. Hell, half of each team has 0 contract guarantee and can be cut at any time.

Here is the NBA minimum salary chart



Years of Experience Salary
0 $898,310
1 $1,445,697
2 $1,620,564
3 $1,678,854
4 $1,737,145
5 $1,882,867
6 $2,028,594
7 $2,174,318
8 $2,320,044
9 $2,331,593
10+ $2,564,753

[BigHustle]

The real problem is that each franchise has debt payments that won’t shrink. The only thing that can shrink is payroll. So every 1% hit to revenue could result in 2% hit to players salary. That’s if owners zero out profits. They need to keep servicing the debt or they lose the asset.

The tricky part is that all the teams have different cap structures, so how do they find the pain point? Do they let one team go bust or do they subsidize that team? For example, HOU has massive debt but likely LAL does not... so LAL can afford any reasonable salary but HOU will need to pay down. Good luck Nelson and Silver to find the middle ground.