Team Owners Await Financial Projections From NBA
NBA team owners are waiting for the league to provide them with new financial projections on lost revenues as a result of the coronavirus-related hiatus, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. As Wojnarowski explains, NBA chief financial officer J.B. Lockhart has taken the lead on making those estimates and sharing the information with owners.
[RELATED: NBA Hiatus May Extend Into June]
Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports and Bobby Marks of ESPN are among those who recently estimated that losing the remainder of the regular season and some or all of the postseason could cost the NBA upwards of $500MM+ in basketball related income. While the league has yet to publicize its own projections, it’s safe to say teams around the NBA are bracing for major losses.
According to Wojnarowski, the NBA will likely share a handful of projections with teams based on at least three different scenarios. Those scenarios are as follows:
- Shutting down the season entirely.
- Resuming the season with no fans in arenas.
- Resuming and playing postseason games with fans in attendance.
That lost revenue isn’t the most pressing concern for fans, but we’ll likely see its impact going forward on the salary cap. As recently as last June, the NBA was calling for a $117MM cap for the 2020/21 season, up from approximately $109MM in 2019/20. Given the projected earnings the league will lose as a result of this hiatus and its controversy with China earlier in the season, that estimate is no longer realistic.
NBA Extending Ban On Team Practices Indefinitely
After initially prohibiting team practices for the weekend, the NBA has extended that ban indefinitely, reports Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Bontemps, players will still be permitted to work out individually at team facilities.
[RELATED: NBA Hiatus May Extend Into June]
With social distancing being encouraged across the country and players on several teams being advised to self-isolate, it makes sense that the NBA isn’t ready to permit practices that could feature a full roster of players and a team’s entire coaching staff.
Players are being asked to remain apart during workouts to limit the number of people coming into contact with each other, including just one player at each basket and one player weight lifting at a time, per Bontemps.
The NBA has also recommended that teams consider using temperature checks on anyone who enters their facilities, league sources tell Bontemps (Twitter link). A fever is one of the most common symptoms for those who have contracted the coronavirus.
International Updates: EuroLeague, LKL, VTB, NBL
The NBA isn’t the only major professional basketball league preparing for at least a 30-day hiatus. Euroleague Basketball president Jordi Bertomeu published a letter to fans today announcing that EuroLeague play will be halted until at least April 11, 2020. According to Bertomeu, there’s still optimism that the season will resume eventually, as is the case with the NBA.
With a small handful of exceptions, nearly all the basketball leagues across Europe have now been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak. Here are a few more updates on the international front:
- Lithuania’s basketball league – the LKL – has officially ended its season, per Donatas Urbonas (Twitter link). Zalgiris, which was in first place by five games with a 22-2 record, has been declared this year’s champion.
- The VTB United League in Russia announced today that it has suspended its season (Twitter link).
- The National Basketball League in Australia announced in a press release that the remaining games in its Grand Final Series – the league’s equivalent of the NBA Finals – between the Sydney Kings and Perth Wildcats will be closed to the general public.
- FIBA Europe officially suspended several events, including EuroLeague Women, EuroCup Women, and the FIBA Europe Cup.
- In non-coronavirus news, German team Bayern Munich parted ways with former Thunder first-rounder Josh Huestis earlier this week, as Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando relays.
Seven Players On 10-Day Contracts When NBA Suspended Season
A moratorium agreement between the NBA and the NBPA will reportedly affect players on 10-day contracts, as Shams Charania of The Athletic said earlier today. Following up on that point, ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter links) confirms that the clock will stop on the 10-day contracts that were active when the NBA suspended its season.
Presumably, Grizzlies forward Anthony Tolliver won’t be impacted. His 10-day deal with Memphis was set to expire on Wednesday night, the last night of game action before the suspension began. Once the moratorium is lifted and play resumes, he’ll likely have to sign a new 10-day contract or rest-of-season pact with the Grizzlies to remain with the team.
However, there were seven other players whose 10-day contracts had yet to run their course as of Wednesday night. Here are the affected players, with the number of days remaining on their deals noted in parentheses:
- Joe Chealey, Hornets (1)
- Donta Hall, Pistons (1)
- Chasson Randle, Warriors (1)
- Sir’Dominic Pointer, Cavaliers (2)
- Dragan Bender, Warriors (3)
- Sheldon Mac, Cavaliers (6)
- Joakim Noah, Clippers (7)
We’ll have to wait for official details on the moratorium agreement to confirm exactly how these 10-day deals will be handled.
Based on today’s reports though, it sounds like the contracts for players like Chealey, Hall, and Randle, which would have expired on Thursday night, will carry over to the day the season resumes. A player like Noah, who still had a week left on his 10-day contract, should play out that week following the resumption of the season.
Unless we learn otherwise, our roster counts page and 10-day tracker will assume these seven 10-day contracts remain active.
Mavs’ Jalen Brunson Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
Mavericks point guard Jalen Brunson has undergone surgery to address the labrum injury in his right shoulder, the team announced today in a press release. No timetable has been set for Brunson’s recovery.
Brunson has been sidelined since February 22 due to his right shoulder injury. A report in late February indicated that the Mavs were concerned the second-year guard had suffered a torn labrum. That report suggested Brunson may attempt to return and play through the pain before undergoing surgery in the offseason.
With the NBA’s season now on hiatus, Brunson and the Mavs took the opportunity to address his shoulder issue immediately — it’s not clear if that would have happened if not for the stoppage. Although his recovery timeline isn’t known, Brunson may now have a chance to recover before season’s end, depending on if and when the league resumes play.
Brunson, 23, has been an important rotation piece for Dallas this season, starting 16 of his 57 games. He has averaged 8.2 PPG, 3.3 APG, and 2.4 RPG on .466/.358/.813 shooting in 17.9 minutes per contest.
USA Basketball Cancels Nike Hoop Summit
Amidst a slew of cancellations and postponements around the sports world, USA Basketball announced today that it is suspending all events until further notice.
The 2020 Nike Hoop Summit, which had been scheduled to take place in Portland, Oregon on April 10, – with practices during the days leading up to the event – has been cancelled, according to USA Basketball’s press release.
The event is a showcase for both domestic and international players, pitting the USA Basketball Men’s Junior Select Team against a team made up of international prospects. Ben Simmons, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Deandre Ayton are among the players who have participated in the event as part of the World Select Team in recent years, while top picks like Jayson Tatum, Markelle Fultz, De’Aaron Fox, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Wendell Carter have played for the U.S. team.
The next major scouting event on the NBA’s pre-draft calendar for 2020 is the Portsmouth Invitational, which is scheduled to take place from April 15-18. So far, no announcement has been made, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if it’s also canceled in the near future.
NBA, NBPA Plan On Moratorium For Roster Moves, Contracts
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association plan to enter an agreement on a moratorium period while the NBA season is suspended, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Similar to the July moratorium, this period would freeze moves such as free agent signings and trades (not that trades would be permitted anyway at this time of year). As Charania explains, it would also prohibit action on player and team options, and would freeze 10-day contracts.
According to Charania (via Twitter), the preliminary timeline for the moratorium period is expected to be March 12 through April 10. That timeline would be reassessed as April 10 approaches.
Postponing the actual scheduled games only represents part of the logistical challenge facing the NBA during its hiatus. There are a number of contract- and CBA-related questions that must be answered in the coming days and weeks, especially if the league ultimately intends to push the 2019/20 league year beyond June 30.
John Hollinger of The Athletic discussed a handful of these questions in a Thursday article, pointing to 10-day contracts, incentive bonuses, option and salary guarantee deadlines, and contracts that expire on July 1 (for both players and coaches) as issues that must be addressed. As Bobby Marks of ESPN and Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report note (via Twitter), the NBA and NBPA would have to come to an agreement on what changes will be made if the end of the season is pushed into July or August.
Hollinger, Marks, and others have also pointed out that the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement includes “force majeure” language in the event that games are canceled for reasons outside of the NBA’s control, such as an epidemic. Theoretically, the league and its owners could trigger that provision and could aim to recoup 1/92.6th of players’ salaries for each lost regular season game.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski writes that players have been made aware of that force majeure clause, but there have been no discussions between the league and the union so far about the provision, since there’s still a belief the season can just be postponed rather than canceled. According to Charania, players will receive their next check in full on March 15.
Multiple NBA Teams Commit To Paying Arena Workers During Hiatus
Some of the first comments Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made on Wednesday night after the NBA announced that it had suspended the 2019/20 season were focused on the team’s part-time, seasonal, and hourly employees, such as security guards and concession workers at the American Airlines Center. Cuban made it clear that the Mavs plan to take care of those employees.
“I reached out to the folks at the arena and our folks at the Mavs to find out what it would cost to support, financially support, people who aren’t going to be able to come to work,” Cuban told reporters, per Mark Medina of USA Today. “They get paid by the hour, and this was their source of income. So, we’ll do some things there. We may ask them to go do some volunteer work in exchange, but we’ve already started the process of having a program in place. I don’t have any details to give, but it’s certainly something that’s important to me.”
Since then, a handful of other teams have followed Cuban’s lead. Hawks owner Tony Ressler had been preparing for this possibility and had planned all along to compensate the team’s full-time and part-time employees who will have their jobs disrupted by the NBA’s hiatus, writes Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We have a pretty clear set of priorities in this kind of remarkable time that we’re living through,” Ressler said. “Protecting our fans, protecting our employees, and protecting the reputation of our league, all of which is important, but let there be no confusion, that means taking care of all of our employees, our full-time, our part-time.”
After Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie tweeted about taking care of non-salaried arena staff, team owner Joe Tsai responded that the Nets are working on a plan for those workers.
Cavaliers forward Kevin Love pledged $100K of his own money to aid arena employees displaced by the NBA’s stoppage, telling ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that he hopes “others will step up” as well. The Cavs announced (via Twitter) shortly thereafter that they’d be compensating all of their arena and event staff members as if every game and event at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is still taking place.
While only a handful of teams have addressed the issue so far, I’d be surprised if that list doesn’t continue to grow in the coming days. Team owners and players will be affected financially by the suspension, but their losses likely won’t be as damaging in the short term as they would be for the lower-level employees who had been relying on the hourly wages earned at NBA events.
Jazz Notes: Gobert, Coronavirus, Self-Quarantine
The NBA won’t be fining or suspending Jazz center Rudy Gobert for his actions leading up to his positive test for the coronavirus, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
Gobert, who tested positive on Wednesday, made light of the coronavirus situation on Monday, when he made a point to touch all of the microphones and recorders in front of him following his shootaround availability.
According to a report from ESPN, Gobert also exhibited “a cavalier attitude toward the virus in the locker room, touching teammates and their belongings.” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski added in a TV appearance that there’s “a lot of frustration” with Gobert in the Jazz locker room (hat tip to NBC Sports).
The All-Star center published an Instagram post on Thursday expressing embarrassment and apologizing for taking any actions that may have endangered those around him.
Here’s more on the Jazz:
- Although Gobert has faced plenty of criticism this week, Bruce Arthur of The Toronto Star argues that the Jazz center can be viewed as an “accidental hero,” since his actions and his positive diagnosis provided the NBA and North America at large with a prominent case study for why the virus should be taken seriously.
- A pair of Jazz beat writers – Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune and Tony Jones of The Athletic – shared their accounts of what became a wild night in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Both reporters became part of the story due to their proximity to affected players Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, as they were among those tested for COVID-19 late on Wednesday in OKC. They both tested negative.
- As we relayed on Thursday, 58 members of Utah’s traveling party were tested for coronavirus on Wednesday, including Walden and Jones. Of those 58, only Mitchell tested positive (Gobert’s test was conducted earlier). Still, the players who tested negative have been instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, as the team announced in a press release.
Coronavirus Notes: Next Steps, Barkley, Testing
In addition to recommending that its players self-quarantine through at least March 16, the NBA has told its clubs that each team is “encouraged” to conduct an educational session by Monday for its players and staff to discuss the coronavirus situation, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
While those meetings could happen in person, it seems more likely they’ll take place remotely, given the NBA’s call to self-isolate. According to Charania, several teams already conducted meetings along those lines before the season was suspended on Wednesday.
Here are more updates on the ongoing coronavirus situation:
- While the NBA may have its own plans in mind for how and when to resume the season, those plans will be impacted by edicts from local governments. For instance, Adam Hoge of NBC Sports Chicago tweets that the owners of all of Chicago’s major sports teams – including the Bulls – told Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker they won’t host any home games with fans in attendance through at least May 1. New York mayor Bill de Blasio, meanwhile, suggested on Thursday that venues like Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden could be closed for “months,” as Malika Andrew of ESPN tweets.
- NBA analyst Charles Barkley said on TNT on Thursday night that he hasn’t been feeling well and has self-quarantined, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Barkley was tested for COVID-19 and is awaiting those results, Feigen adds.
- Teams around the NBA want to be able to test their players for the coronavirus, but a limited supply of testing equipment nationwide restricts their ability to do so unless players or staffers are showing symptoms or have definitely come in contact with someone who was affected, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic.
- The McDonald’s All American Games – a showcase for high school players – announced on Thursday evening (via Twitter) that its 2020 events have been canceled.