Restart Notes: CBA, Orlando, BLM, Salaries

As concerns spread among NBA players about the league’s Orlando restart plan, several high-profile players are talking to their fellow players about the possible negative financial impact that not playing would have, not just on this season but on future years, reports Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

If the NBA and NBPA can’t reach a deal to complete this season and are unable to agree on the necessary adjustments to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the league would have the power to terminate the CBA outright and renegotiate it. Those high-profile players are making it clear that the NBPA wouldn’t have any real leverage negotiating a new CBA with team owners in the middle of a pandemic, says Goodwill (via Twitter).

Here’s more on the NBA’s restart, as players continue to express a variety of concerns about the plan:

• The NBA is working to convey to players that framing the restart as if everyone will be spending three months isolated in Orlando is misleading, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks of ESPN. As Woj and Marks notes, 14 of the 22 teams (the six that miss the postseason and the eight that lose in the first round) will be eliminated and can return home within 53 days of arriving in Disney. Players on the eight teams still active at that point are expected to be able to bring a limited number of guests to Orlando.
• Sources tell Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) that several players intend to use the global attention the NBA’s return will receive to promote and support the Black Lives Matter movement this summer. However, players remain concerned that the NBA’s restart will draw attention away from the ongoing battle for social justice reforms. “Once we start playing basketball again, the news will turn from systemic racism to ‘who did what’ in the game last night,” one player told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). “It’s a crucial time for us to be able to play and blend that to impact what’s happening in our communities.”
• According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN (hat tip to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports), every player on an NBA roster will be paid the same pro-rated percentage of his salary for the final games of the season — even players on the bottom eight teams, who won’t be in action. While that may not be a perfect solution, it wouldn’t be fair to players on those inactive teams if they lose a greater portion of their salaries because the NBA decided not to include them in the restart.