National Basketball Players Association Rumors

NBA, NBPA Confirm Agreement To Resume Playoffs

August 28th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have issued a joint statement confirming that the postseason will resume on Saturday, August 29 and outlining the social justice and voting initiatives that have been agreed upon as part of the restart.

The full slate of games for Saturday and Sunday can be found right here.

As part of the agreement to resume the playoffs, the NBA and its players will immediately establish a “social justice coalition,” which will focus on issues such as “increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.” Players, coaches, and team owners will all be part of that coalition.

Additionally, in each city where the NBA team owns its arena, owners will work with local officials to convert those buildings into voting locations for the 2020 election. A number of clubs have started doing this already, with the Rockets and Jazz among the latest to confirm their plans.

The Heat pushed for this initiative, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who tweets that the club has been “trying for months” to get local officials to make AmericanAirlines Arena a voting center.

The NBA also plans to work with players and the league’s broadcast partners to create more advertisements that promote “greater civic engagement in national and local elections” and raise awareness about voter access — they’ll be aired during the remaining 2020 playoff games.

Following the players’ decision not to play Wednesday’s games as scheduled, they met multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday and ultimately decided they wanted to complete the season. They held a call with team owners on Thursday evening to discuss next steps and came away satisfied with how their concerns were addressed — presumably, the initiatives detailed above were all discussed during that call.

NBA Players Discuss Logistics Of Potentially Boycotting Games

August 26th, 2020 at 11:27am CST by Luke Adams

The National Basketball Players Association executive committee has been in communication with players to discuss the logistics of potentially boycotting games, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

According to Haynes, those discussions have been spearheaded by players who are “emotionally traumatized” by the video of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, being shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Players began reaching out to the NBPA’s executive committee this week to say they’re not in the right frame of mind to play basketball, sources tell Haynes.

Haynes reports that an assembly of players met at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort on Tuesday night to discuss the situation, with Chris Paul and Andre Iguodala among the NBPA leaders who were in attendance.

Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link) separately reported that Raptors and Celtics players met at their hotel on Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of boycotting Game 1 of their series on Thursday — presumably, that was the same meeting cited by Haynes. The two teams are expected to meet again tonight, a source tells Spears (Twitter link).

The NBPA has been educating players on the pros and cons of a boycott and letting those players know they’ll support them whatever they decide to do, writes Haynes. The feeling after last night’s meeting is that a majority of Raptors and Celtics players want to play Game 1 on Thursday, tweets Spears.

Bringing attention to social justice issues and systemic racism was among players’ primary goals when they agreed to the NBA’s restart plan this summer. However, in the wake of the latest shooting of a Black man by police, a number of players feel as if their efforts to raise awareness and enact change have been overshadowed by on-court results — Bucks guard George Hill argued earlier this week that resuming the season took the focus off of “what the issues are.”

The Raptors, Celtics, and other players around the NBA are discussing what other measures could be taken to address the situation and to “thwart police brutality toward people of color,” according to Haynes. At this point, a boycott may not be the likeliest outcome, but Raptors guard Fred VanVleet explained the thinking behind the idea on Tuesday, as Malika Andrews and Tim Bontemps of ESPN relayed.

“We knew coming here or not coming here was not going to stop anything, but I think ultimately playing or not playing puts pressure on somebody,” VanVleet said. “So, for example, this happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin, if I’m correct? Would it be nice if, in a perfect world, we all say we’re not playing, and the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks — that’s going to trickle down. If he steps up to the plate and puts pressure on the district attorney’s office, and state’s attorney, and governors, and politicians there to make real change and get some justice.

“I know it’s not that simple. But, at the end of the day, if we’re gonna sit here and talk about making change, then at some point we’re gonna have to put our nuts on the line and actually put something up to lose, rather than just money or visibility.”

NBA, NBPA Agree To Extend CBA Termination Deadline Again

August 25th, 2020 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have once again reached an agreement to push back the 60-day window giving each side the right to terminate the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, October 15 is the new deadline for modifications to the CBA for 2020/21.

The NBA and NBPA first agreed to push back the Collective Bargaining Agreement termination deadline in May. The agreement gives the two sides more time to make the necessary adjustments to the CBA for the 2020/21 season to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

As Wojnarowski explains (via Twitter), an October 15 deadline will allow the NBA to complete the current season and should give the two sides a chance to make more informed decisions for the future based on the 2019/20 end-of-season revenues.

The pandemic has resulted in NBA revenue losses for this season and will affect its projected revenues going forward. However, there’s still optimism that the league and the players’ union can reach agreements on temporary changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and figure out next season’s salary cap without requiring the “nuclear option” of terminating the CBA, tweets Woj.

“Extending is an easy call,” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told ESPN (Twitter link). “If everyone continues to be well-intentioned on how we deal with the economic effects of this virus, we’ll just make the appropriate adjustments and there won’t be a need to terminate the CBA at all.”

While the 2020/21 season presents a number of logistical and financial challenges on its own, teams will also hope to get some clarity this fall on what the salary cap might look like in 2021/22, ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter). The Jazz, for example, will have the opportunity to extend Rudy Gobert this offseason, but a new deal for him would go into effect in ’21/22 and his first-year salary would likely be based on a percentage of the cap.

NBPA Preparing For Possible Delay Of Free Agency Start Date

August 20th, 2020 at 2:35pm CST by Luke Adams

The National Basketball Players Association is preparing players for the possibility that the start of the 2020 free agency period will be postponed by several weeks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

As Wojnarowski explains, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in major uncertainty about the league’s projected revenues for the 2020/21 season. Delaying the October 18 free agency start date would give both the NBA and NBPA more time to formulate the parameters of the 2020/21 salary cap and luxury tax lines.

The NBA previously projected a $115MM salary cap and a $139MM tax threshold for the ’20/21 season. However, that projection was released in January and hasn’t been updated in recent months to account for the pandemic, which has had a huge financial impact on the league.

According to Wojnarowski, with the October 16 draft fast approaching, front offices around the NBA are concerned about the lack of updated cap and tax projections in place, since those estimates allow teams to make roster decisions with a clearer sense of the financial ramifications.

Before finalizing its projections, the league will likely want to wait as long as possible to determine whether fans can safely be allowed to return to arenas next season. As Woj notes, the NBA may also deviate from its usual formula to determine next year’s salary cap, artificially smoothing it to avoid a significant drop based on lost revenues. The NBA and NBPA continue to collectively bargain those issues.

The NBA’s tentative offseason schedule would allow free agents to begin negotiating with teams at 5:00 pm central time on October 18, just two days after the draft. The new league year is officially scheduled to begin on October 19.

However, that calendar was created when it looked as if next season would begin as early as December 1. If the start of the ’20/21 regular season is pushed back, there may not be as much urgency to open free agency that soon. According to Wojnarowski, the NBPA has been privately suggesting to players that the season could start sometime in late December or in the new year.

Although Wojnarowski’s report suggests that free agency seems more likely than not to be delayed, it’s not clear whether this year’s draft date will be affected. According to Woj, many teams have interest in connecting the draft and free agency and postponing them together.

Roberts Meets With Players, Discusses 2020/21 Season Start

August 13th, 2020 at 7:24pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Michele Roberts, head of the National Basketball Players Association, consulted in person with several NBA players, across multiple groups, in Orlando yesterday, per Henry Abbott of TrueHoop (Twitter link). Meeting attendees wore masks.

According to Abbott (Twitter link), Roberts anticipates that the NBPA and the NBA will negotiate a revised Collective Bargaining Agreement with relative ease, and that the next NBA season, which the league proposed starting on December 1, will actually commence “some time between late January and early March.”

As we previously relayed, Roberts floated the concept of next season tipping off in early 2021 as opposed to December of this year in an interview earlier this week. The NBPA has yet to approve any official start date for next season.

In that chat with Chris Mannix of SI.com, Roberts indicated that cultivating some kind of campus environment for the season similar to the current 2019/20 Orlando campus model would be the most probable scenario unless something were to change with the status of the current coronavirus pandemic.

The deadline for a renegotiation of the league’s current CBA with players is December 15, 2022.

And-Ones: 2020/21 Season, Giannis, Bubble, Execs

August 11th, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The National Basketball Players Association has always viewed the NBA’s proposed start date of December 1 for the 2020/21 season as unlikely, a point that NBPA executive director Michele Roberts reiterated this week in a conversation with Chris Mannix of SI.com.

Roberts speculated that next season won’t start until early 2021. She also echoed another point she has made previously, suggesting that it’s hard to imagine how the NBA can play without a bubble if the state of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t significantly improve.

“Right now I don’t see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts told Mannix. “I don’t see that, given the state of where we are. Given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.

“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no,” Roberts continued. “It’s not going to happen. I think what we’re going to have to do is figure out creatively how we can have bubble-like the environments that allow us to play the number of games that we believe we need to play in order to complete the season and crown a champion.”

According to Roberts, she has had “healthy conversations” with players about what next season might look like, but for now the focus remains on safely finishing the 2019/20 campaign.

Here’s more from around the NBA:

Although Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo technically left the NBA’s campus for his recent oral surgery, the trip didn’t count as leaving the bubble and he wasn’t required to quarantine upon returning. As Joe Vardon of The Athletic explains, the league has “privatized” a dentist’s office in the Orlando area — players who go there and back from the Walt Disney World campus are considered safe, since the dentists and their assistants are tested daily.
With 22 teams sharing Walt Disney World hotels and players across the NBA feeling united in the fight for social justice, there has been more fraternizing among rival players in Orlando than usual. Sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports that some coaches have encouraged players to dial back on those friendly interactions with opponents as the postseason approaches. Those requests have been “met with mixed reviews among players,” per Haynes.
In an entertaining piece for ESPN.com, Brian Windhorst details how an oft-overlooked award – Executive of the Year – can inspire pettiness and jealousy among the NBA presidents and general managers who vote on the annual honor.

Second Bubble For NBA’s Bottom Eight Teams Now Appears Unlikely

August 4th, 2020 at 2:49pm CST by Luke Adams

A report one month ago suggested that the NBA appeared likely to create a second campus/bubble environment in Chicago for the league’s bottom eight teams. The idea was for those teams left out of the Orlando restart to spend some time with their players during the offseason, conducting mini-training camps and inter-squad games in a single location.

However, according to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic, there’s a growing belief that a second bubble site won’t happen. The Athletic’s duo reports that there’s also pessimism about those bottom eight teams getting to hold in-market minicamps for group workouts.

“There’s nothing happening,” said one general manager following a Tuesday call with the eight GMs and various league officials. “It’s a shame. It’s a huge detriment to these eight franchises that were left behind.”

With the NBA focusing on the success of the Orlando restart, discussions about plans for the bottom eight teams – the Warriors, Timberwolves, Cavaliers, Hawks, Bulls, Pistons, Knicks, and Hornets – have been inconsistent. As recently as last week, there seemed to be momentum building toward a plan to allow those clubs to hold practices and workouts, but that momentum has apparently stalled.

According to Charania and Amick, the National Basketball Players Association has safety concerns related to the idea of a second bubble amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. There are also financial and logistical complications associated with creating a smaller-scale version of the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus.

Charania and Amick suggest that the NBPA is more open to the idea of creating smaller, in-market bubbles for teams to host individual mini-camps in their respective cities. But it sounds as if that won’t happen by mid-August as initially hoped, if it happens at all.

The eight teams left out of the Orlando restart believe they’re at a potential competitive disadvantage by missing out on the player and culture development that other teams are getting this summer, sources tell The Athletic. Those clubs are expected to continue pushing for some form of offseason team activities to re-engage players and coaches. For now, they’re only permitted to hold 1-on-0 workouts at their practice facilities, with limited coach involvement.

NBA, NBPA Reach Agreements On Disability Insurance, Salary Withholding

July 30th, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and NBPA have reached an agreement on a revamped insurance benefit for players who suffer career-ending injuries, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. According to Wojnarowski, the new disability policy will pay players $2.5MM in the event of a career-ending injury sustained on or off the court.

The previous insurance policy for career-ending injuries paid out approximately $312K — the NBPA had been pushing to increase that amount in the midst of future salary cap uncertainty and the coronavirus pandemic, writes Wojnarowski. The new policy will also apply to career-ending ailments related to COVID-19 complications, Woj adds.

Sources tell ESPN that the new insurance benefit will apply to all active players up to 35 years old and would be paid out in addition to the money owed on the player’s existing contract. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out (via Twitter), NBA clubs already have a disability policy in place for their top earners who suffer major injuries, but that policy is designed to protect the teams rather than the players.

Meanwhile, the NBA and the players’ union have also reached an agreement to continue withholding 25% of players’ pay checks in escrow, Wojnarowski reports. That deal has been in place since May 15 and is designed to help maintain a balance of the season’s basketball-related income between teams and players.

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for approximately a 50/50 revenue split between teams and players. With a portion of the season’s games canceled and the NBA preparing to bring in less revenue than initially anticipated, withholding a portion of player pay checks allows the two sides to begin balancing the books.

According to Marks (via Twitter), there’s already about $600MM sitting in a pair of escrow accounts that has been withheld from players by the NBA and its teams. Once the end-of-season accounting is completed, the NBA will be able to determine if players received more than 51% of this season’s BRI. If that’s the case, the money in escrow will be returned to the teams rather than the players.

Roberts Talks Revenue Loss, Possible 2020/21 Campus, CBA

July 28th, 2020 at 8:35pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

In a wide-ranging phone conversation with Tim Bontemps of ESPN today, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts discussed a variety of topics pertaining to the league’s immediate future. Key on everyone’s mind recently has been the success thus far of the 2019/20 season’s Orlando campus, wherein no NBA players or travel team personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 after clearing their quarantines for the past three weeks.

Roberts acknowledged that another possible campus set-up, with NBA players stationed at a single, isolated site with frequent testing, seems like a realistic possibility for the 2020/21 NBA season, given the current state of the novel coronavirus in the US.

“If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently,” Roberts said. “So it may be that, if the bubble is the way to play, then that is likely gonna be the way we play next season, if things remain as they are.”

The 2020/21 NBA season is tentatively slated to tip off on December 1, though the NBPA hasn’t approved that start date.

Roberts went on to commend the safety precautions implemented within the Disney World campus setup.

“The medical facilities and the physicians on campus, I’m not worried about anyone getting sick and not being able to get absolutely immediate health care,” she said. “I am completely satisfied that we’ve come up with the right protocol.”

The NBA and the NBPA are bracing for a significant loss in league revenue, stemming from the loss of fan attendance for much or all of the 2020/21 season. Both sides will negotiate handling the fallout of these losses and are “beginning some very high-level discussions with respect to what the potential issues are,” Roberts told Bontemps.

Roberts also noted that she does not intend to use the revenue conversations between the NBA and NBPA as a moment to opt out of the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement for a total renegotiation ahead of the December 15, 2022 deadline for doing so.

“That’s not something that has been addressed and, I would venture to say, is not going to happen.”

NBA G League Players Form Union

July 21st, 2020 at 10:17am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s G League players have organized and formed a union, temporarily named the Basketball Players Union (BPU), the National Basketball Players Association announced in a press release. Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported the news (via Twitter).

According to today’s announcement, approximately 80% of players voted to unionize, and the NBA G League has agreed to voluntarily recognize the BPU as the players’ representative.

The newly-formed union will represent players on all NBA G League teams, including the Select Team that will be launched in 2020/21. However, players on two-way contracts or on NBAGL assignments from NBA rosters will continue to be repped by the NBPA.

“We are extremely pleased that our brothers in the G League elected to form their own union,” said Anthony Tolliver, a member of the NBPA’s executive committee. “The many NBA players with prior experience in the G League can personally attest to the value an organized union brings to players’ careers. We would like to especially thank Andre Ingram and John Holland who gave so much of their personal time to the organizing process.”

G League players earn $35K per season and don’t have anywhere near the same number of benefits enjoyed by NBA players. Now that they’re unionized, the BPU will have the opportunity to collective bargain salaries, benefits, and other working conditions with the NBAGL, so those negotiations will be worth keeping an eye on.