1:49pm: Now that the Board of Governors has voted in favor of the league’s return-to-play plan, the players’ union is next up. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that the NBPA’s team player representatives have a call set for Friday to approve the league’s plan for resuming the season.
11:03am: While the NBA’s Board of Governors is reportedly on the verge of approving Adam Silver‘s recommended plan for resuming the 2019/20 season, that’s just one important hurdle for the league to clear as it solidifies that plan.
The National Basketball Players Association will also need to formally approve any return-to-play plan, and Marc Stein of The New York Times tweets that the union has scheduled a Friday virtual meeting for its members to discuss the proposal.
Silver and the NBA have been working closely with NBPA president Chris Paul and the players’ union throughout the planning process, and the commissioner is believed to have already taken into account many of the players’ concerns. As such, I wouldn’t expect things to get contentious between the NBA and NBPA — it sounds like there’s a good chance the union will approve Silver’s proposal without significant pushback.
Still, players will want to receive assurances that the NBA is doing as much as it can to keep players healthy and safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A source tell Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link) that the league and the union are still working on a “lengthy” medical protocols document. It will be shared with teams once those discussions are completed, Reynolds adds.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link) details, there will also be a number of other issues that the NBA and NBPA will need to collective bargain in order to formally move forward.
Besides navigating major financial issues like player salary reductions and the salary cap going forward, the two sides will have to move player option decision deadlines, salary guarantee dates, expiration dates for trade exceptions, and several other deadlines tied to free agency and the offseason, Marks writes. Additionally, decisions will have to be made on the possible expansion of rosters, lifting the current transaction moratorium, and the draft.
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