Michele Roberts Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Social Justice Board, Boatright, Jazz, Moore

November 9th, 2020 at 8:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Carmelo Anthony, Avery Bradley, Sterling Brown, Donovan Mitchell and Karl-Anthony Towns are the players chosen to serve on the league’s Social Justice Coalition Board, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (Twitter links).

The NBA and NBPA agreed to create the group to advance equality and social justice after teams walked out of games in late August to protest a police shooting. Commissioner Adam Silver, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, as well as owners Micky Arison, Steve Ballmer, Clay Bennett, Marc Lasry and Vivek Randadive and coaches Lloyd Pierce and Doc Rivers.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Ryan Boatright has signed with Lithuanian club team BC Rytas Vilnius, the team tweets. Boatright, 28, played in Europe last season after spending time in the G League during the 2018/19 season. The former University of Connecticut guard also played in Italy, China and Turkey.
The sale price of the Jazz bodes well for the league’s franchise valuations, Bill Shea of The Athletic notes. The team, along with an arena and a couple of minor-league teams, were sold to Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith for $1.66 billion, and the league’s owners are expected to approve the sale. The valuation falls in line with expectations and doesn’t reflect any pandemic discount, Shea continues. It also reinforces the notion that team values keep going up.
Former Pacers forward Ben Moore has signed with South East Melbourne Phoenix of Australia’s NBL, according to the team. Moore is expected to join the club for preseason training next month. Moore, who also spent time in the Spurs organization, logged two games with Indiana during the 2017/18 season.

NBPA To Vote On December Start Thursday Or Friday

November 3rd, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The National Basketball Players Association is planning to hold a vote on Thursday night or Friday morning on the league’s proposal to start next season on December 22, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports.

The NBPA, led by executive director Michele Roberts, started holding conference calls with players from each team on Monday and that process will go through Thursday morning. The tone of those calls gave the impression the season is likely to start before Christmas, Charania adds. In that instance, a 72-game season would be held.

The alternative start date is Martin Luther King Day on January 18 with a 60-game regular season. Previous reports suggested the league might limit the season to 50 games if it started in mid-January.

Sources communicated to Charania that NBA players feel the December 22 league start will happen. The NBA has projected that teams and players could suffer significant financial losses with a January start. The week of Christmas traditionally produces ample revenue, numbering in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for the league.

The league predicted that its television network partners may want to renegotiate their lucrative NBA contracts should Christmas games be skipped this season. Under either restart date, the NBA would reduce travel between arenas by 25% to minimize COVID-19 risk, and there would be a six-day All-Star Break. Also, a play-in tournament for the seventh through tenth seeds in both conferences would transpire.

Both the league and the NBPA are targeting a $109MM salary cap and a $132MM luxury tax. The two sides differ when it comes to how they feel the cap and tax should evolve beyond the 2020/21 season, however. The NBA would like to keep a flat tax and cap over the next few years, while the NBPA would prefer an annual increase, sources tell Charania.

If the two sides agree to a 72-game season tipping off on December 22, there would be 14 back-to-back games per team. The regular season would conclude around May 16, and the NBA Finals would finish at the end of July.

Were the NBA to embark upon a 60-game regular season on January 18, each team would have to deal with 12 back-to-back games. The regular season would resolve in June, and the NBA Finals would wrap up around the end of August.

Alex Kirschenbaum contributed to this report.

NBPA “Closer” To Agreement On Cap, Free Agency

October 27th, 2020 at 7:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Progress has been made in determining the league’s salary cap and free agency date, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told USA Today’s Mark Medina.

Roberts indicated the she’s “closer” to reaching an agreement with the league on those pressing matters.

“We’re probably closer toward resolving that issue,” Roberts said. “Frankly, that is something we can’t hold off for deciding too much longer.”

A report earlier on Tuesday revealed that some team executives are preparing for free agency to begin 48-72 hours after the November 18 draft. Roberts admits that players headed to free agency are eager to determine their futures. However, teams won’t know how much they can spend until the salary cap is determined.

“We have free agents that are losing their minds, as are teams that want to engage and negotiate. So that’s something we don’t have the luxury of delaying a decision on,” Roberts said. “As tough as this is, it’s not life or death. We want to do it right and not do it quickly if it sacrifices doing it right.”

With the loss of revenue due to the pandemic, Roberts acknowledges the players and league have no choice but to find common ground.

“It would be silly to say we’re not possibly going to make a deal,” Roberts said. “Then we would just say hello to the end of professional basketball. I’m not anywhere near there.”

Roberts also addressed a few other topics:

She’s unsure how the latest proposal to start next season on December 22 will be received by the players, or how it could affect teams that made deep playoff runs in Orlando. She anticipates that players on teams who didn’t participate in the restart would be in favor of getting the season started sooner than later. “There are guys that haven’t played since the suspension of play in March and they may have a different attitude or not,” she said. “Frankly, I’ve spoken to players that did stop playing at or about that time, and they’re banging down the doors to get back to the practice facility.”
She’s skeptical that teams can allow fans into arenas until a vaccine is widely available. “That’s such a big difference to indoor activity,” she said. “Much of the surge we’re hearing about right now has a lot to do with people returning indoors because of the weather. That concerns me.”
Another “bubble-like” setting on a limited basis is a possibility but she hopes it isn’t necessary. “I don’t think anyone wants to do that,” she said. “And if we do it, we don’t want to do it for any length of time.”

NBA, NBPA Extend CBA Termination Deadline For Third Time

October 16th, 2020 at 10:05am CST by JD Shaw

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have once again agreed to extend the deadline that would allow one side to terminate the Collective Bargaining Agreement due to COVID-19, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.

The decision marks the third of its kind since May, with the new deadline now being October 30. Both sides are in active discussions on what the Collective Bargaining Agreement should include for next season, according to Wojnarowski, who says the possibility of the CBA being terminated remains unlikely.

“Extending is an easy call,” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told ESPN in August when the sides agreed to extend the deadline for a second time (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.”

Though exact numbers aren’t known, the pandemic has caused significant financial losses for the league this year and beyond. The two sides are discussing a new salary cap for the upcoming campaign based on future financial projections and implications.

It’s unclear when the 2020/21 season could begin, as the league is currently investigating ways to safely bring fans back into arenas for the first time since the pandemic began. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has previously estimated that 40% of the league’s revenue comes from game-night counts.

While the NBA season will occur in some form, a decision also must be reached about the NBA G League. Discussions have been ongoing about how and when the G League could proceed, with several agents telling Hoops Rumors they’ve prioritized placing clients overseas in recent weeks due to the widespread uncertainty.

The NBA’s current CBA contains a mutual opt-out after the 2022/23 season and extends into the 2023/24 season. The league and union had previously projected a 2020/21 salary cap of $115MM and luxury-tax threshold of $139MM. Some teams fear those numbers could fall by as much as $25-30MM, according to Wojnarowski, though the two sides are expected to reach a compromise to avoid a significant drop.

For fans and officials across the league alike, the importance of the NBA and NBPA configuring a new salary cap mechanism and continuing productive negotiations in the coming weeks is clear.

And-Ones: Adebayo, Olympics, NBA Foundation, Tsai

October 9th, 2020 at 5:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Although he didn’t make the final 12-man squad that took part in the 2019 World Cup, Heat center Bam Adebayo participated in Team USA’s training camp leading up to that event and received consideration to represent the U.S. in the international competition.

With the Tokyo Olympics on tap for the summer of 2021, however, another national program is hoping to recruit Adebayo away from USA Basketball, according to Colin Udoh of ESPN, who says Nigeria wants to add the big man to its Olympic roster. Adebayo’s father is Nigerian, Udoh notes.

“Having Bam in our national team is a possibility that we are considering as a federation ahead of the 2020 Olympics and beyond,” Nigeria Basketball Federation president Musa Kida said in a statement to ESPN. “We are excited about how far he has gone and what he can achieve in his career with D’Tigers if he chooses to play for Nigeria.”

Nigeria has already earned an Olympic berth and – assuming next season’s schedule allows for it – is expected to feature NBA players such as Josh Okogie, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chimezie Metu, and potentially Spencer Dinwiddie. It remains to be seen if the team will be able to land Adebayo, but he has said in the past that he’d consider Nigeria if asked. He also may be more open to the idea after being cut from last year’s Team USA roster.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The NBA and NBPA issued a joint press release today announcing the board of directors for the NBA Foundation, a new organization dedicated to driving “economic empowerment for Black communities through employment and career advancement.” In addition to Harrison Barnes and Tobias Harris, whose involvement was previously reported, the NBA Foundation’s board of directors will be made up of Adam Silver, Michele Roberts, and four team owners (Gayle Benson, Tony Ressler, Larry Tanenbaum, and Michael Jordan).
As we relayed earlier today, China’s CCTV has lifted its year-long ban on NBA broadcasts, citing the league’s role in fighting COVID-19 in China as a primary reason for that decision. NetsDaily suggests Nets owner Joe Tsai may have played a key part in that effort, having sent a $3.7MM donation to China in February to help fight the pandemic.
In an Insider-only article for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks lists the trade assets held by all 30 teams, including moveable players, surplus draft picks, and trade exceptions.

Michele Roberts Talks Free Agency, 2020/21 Season, Cap, More

October 6th, 2020 at 11:37am CST by Luke Adams

Having rescheduled this year’s draft for November 18, the NBA has yet to officially set a start date for 2020’s free agent period. Speaking to Shams Charania of The Athletic, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts suggested that she thinks free agency will probably start no later than December 1 and that the salary cap and tax figures won’t drop too drastically from what was originally projected.

“We can’t go much beyond (December 1) for (free agency),” Roberts said. “We had a projected BRI (basketball-related income), which I think teams appropriately planned for. I don’t think we can deviate much from where we projected the cap to be.

“It may not reflect what people think is the likely BRI, but since I’m of the view this game is not dead and it will rebound, we can do some things with the cap to allow for a free market and not completely destroy what the teams were expecting the cap to be as they were planning ahead. Frankly, I think that’s going to be one of the easier negotiations, figuring out a cap.”

As Charania writes, Roberts met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Sunday, and the two sides left that meeting confident that they’ll be able to negotiate agreements on the many cap- and CBA-related issues that must be resolved before the new league year and the 2020/21 season begin.

“It’s amazing what needs to be accomplished in the next six weeks, but it has to be done. I feel sooner rather than later,” Roberts said, adding that she doesn’t believe there’s any real chance of a lockout. “… We’re going to resolve this.”

Charania’s Q&A with Roberts is jam-packed with interesting info and quotes, and is worth checking out in full if you’re an Athletic subscriber. Here are a few more of the most notable takeaways from the conversation:

Roberts still views January as the “absolute earliest” possible start date for the 2020/21 season. “The latter part of January, February makes sense,” she told Charania. “If it’s later than that, if we have a terrible winter because the virus decides to reassert herself, that’s fine.”
Although Roberts and the NBPA share the NBA’s hope that teams can play a full 82-game season in their respective home arenas in 2020/21, she told Charania that the two sides must be “flexible” and “nimble” as it makes plans for next season. “I’m not of the view that we should wait until we think the arenas can open, because this virus, she’s not cooperative at all,” Roberts said.
Silver has expressed some reluctance to change the NBA’s permanent calendar as a result of the COVID-related delays, but Roberts sounds more open to that possibility. “Even before COVID happened, there was a conversation about starting our season later. Why compete with football in the fall? Why don’t we start our season around Christmas?” Roberts said to Charania. “It may very well be that our regular schedule is going to change, not so much because of COVID, but because of the ability to experiment. I wouldn’t bet on returning to the old normal.”
Faced with the possibility of the NBA’s basketball-related income for next season dipping from $8 billion to something like $6 billion, Roberts acknowledged that maintaining the 51/49 split between players and owners will be tricky. “It comes down to if it’s a $6 billion pie and our owners are entitled to 49%, and they’re already committed to $5 billion in player salaries and fixed costs for example, where’s the rest of their money?” she said. “There’s ways to take that $6 billion and get to their 49%. One of the ways to do it is to slash player salaries. I got to deal with a constituency that, you slash their salaries, this may be for many of my guys on the last two or three years of their careers. Is there a way to deal with that?”
Here’s more from Roberts to Charania on the issue of the BRI split: “We’ll never say to the owners: ‘Y’all just going to have to eat the loss.’ Who’s going to do that? They’re not stupid. They’re not just going to say, ‘OK, yeah you’re right, we’re just going to have to lose a couple billion dollars on our own.’ That’s not going to happen. Instead what you say is, ‘Can we figure out a way to manage that so there is no loss, but there isn’t an immediate pay day. Can you withstand some delay in getting your money?’ I have some real life examples of people I know in my life that say that they live paycheck-to-paycheck. And there are other people that can say that they can deal with deferred compensation. You figure it out.”

And-Ones: Carter, Roberts, Hervey, Heat

October 2nd, 2020 at 12:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Longtime NBA forward Vince Carter has already transitioned into a new broadcasting role after calling it a career earlier in 2020, but he received one more honor as a player from the NBA this week. The league announced on Thursday that NBA players voted Carter as the recipient of the NBA Sportsmanship Award for the 2019/20 season.

The aim of the award is to honor the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court,” the league noted in its press release. Six players – one per division – were nominated as finalists, with Carter beating out Harrison Barnes, Steven Adams, Langston Galloway, Tyus Jones, and Garrett Temple for the honor in his final season.

Carter earned 143 of 266 possible first-place votes and finished with 2,520 total voting points. Temple was the runner-up, with 22 first-place votes and 1,746 total points.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In a conversation with Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said she won’t leave the players’ union until “we’ve returned to some semblance of stability,” but the plan is still for that to happen in 2022, when her current contract ends. “This PA has to have a succession plan,” Roberts said. “Every company does, we need to have one and we need to get about the business of getting somebody in place. … We’re going to get somebody in place and it’s going to be someone fantastic.”
Former Thunder two-way player Kevin Hervey spoke to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman about leaving the NBA and G League to play for Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia. “I see it as such an opportunity to grow not only as a basketball player, but as an individual,” Hervey said. “To go experience a different culture, to go see a different side of the world.”
Teams around the NBA – especially in smaller markets – should be rooting for the Heat over the Lakers in the NBA Finals, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who contends that a Miami win would be a point in favor of patiently building a roster from the ground up, rather than hoping two superstars will choose to join you.

And-Ones: Roberts, China, Coronavirus, Gibson

September 30th, 2020 at 1:30pm CST by Luke Adams

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts turned down a seven-figure annual bonus earlier this year, a source tells Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic. As Kaplan explains, Roberts’ total compensation during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2020 amounted to $1.47MM, down $2.85MM from the year before. Kaplan hears that Roberts’ base salary wasn’t reduced and that the difference was a result of her forgoing a bonus.

Roberts is one of a number of notable basketball executives whose earnings were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and about 100 of the league’s top executives accepted pay cuts of 20%, Kaplan notes.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

From the conflict with China to the deaths of Kobe Bryant and David Stern to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2019/20 NBA season has been one of the most turbulent in league history. With the help of a few players, Scott Cacciola of The New York Times takes a look back at a very strange NBA year.
In his own NBA year in review, ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz cites sources who estimate that the league’s potential losses as a result of the China conflict will amount to at least $200MM.
Appearing today on CNBC (video link), Nets owner Joseph Tsai expressed optimism about the NBA’s future, indicating that COVID-19 rapid testing and – eventually – a vaccine will allow fans to eventually return to arenas. “Next season is going to be a little bit tricky, because we don’t anticipate having a lot of fans or having full buildings into the arena anytime soon,” Tsai said. “But guess what? The following season, 2022, 2023, we look for a very nice rebound.”
Former Mavericks and Celtics guard Jonathan Gibson is signing with the Beijing Ducks, a source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Gibson, who appeared in 21 NBA games between 2016-18, spent most of last season with another Chinese team, the Jiangsu Dragons.

Roberts Skeptical 2020/21 Season Will Start In December

September 11th, 2020 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA reportedly informed its Board of Governors this week that the 2020/21 season won’t begin any earlier than Christmas Day. While starting next season on December 25 – typically one of the biggest days on the NBA’s calendar – might seem ideal, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts isn’t sure it will be possible.

“I do think we’ll have a season, but I don’t think it will begin in December,” Roberts told David Gelles of The New York Times.

There’s reportedly a consensus hope among the NBA league office and team owners that the ’20/21 season can tip off in late-December or at some point in January. However, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer tweeted on Thursday that he wouldn’t be surprised if the season doesn’t begin until February or even March. The league and the players’ union will both have to sign off on a revamped schedule.

One of the NBA’s top priorities for next season is getting fans back into arenas, since a significant chunk of the league’s revenues are tied to ticket sales and in-arena purchases. Roberts is hopeful that can happen, but acknowledged to Gelles that even if there are advances in coronavirus testing and treatment in the coming months, the idea of filling arenas next season is probably unrealistic.

“There will be a revenue drop,” Roberts said. “I do see a possibility of there being some reopening of some arenas. But if we’re lucky we will see 25 percent of the revenue that ordinarily comes through gate receipts, etc. That’s optimistic. Hopefully we can soften the blow, but I don’t see us packing arenas.”

Although Roberts is optimistic that some arenas will be able to accommodate fans – even if it happens later in the season and with a significantly reduced capacity – she suggested that some “bubble-like environment” may be necessary to start the season, given the state of the coronavirus pandemic and how successful the Walt Disney World bubble has been this summer.

“I suspect that we will have a hybrid environment, maybe with division bubbles that last for a certain number of months, and then we stop,” Roberts told Gelles. “But the concept of putting our players in a bubble for an entire season is unrealistic.”

Restart Notes: Rivers, Beverley, Roberts, Protest, Paul

August 28th, 2020 at 6:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers coach Doc Rivers felt the season would resume when the players sat out Wednesday’s games in protest but acknowledged it could have gone either way, according to Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “I knew how high the emotions were and I just, I had a lot of faith that it would all calm down,” Rivers said. He added that the players’ vote whether to keep playing was close. “I don’t think it was a layup either way,” he said.

We have more regarding the decision to resume the season:

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley admits he exchanged words with Players Association executive director Michele Roberts during the contentious players meeting on Wednesday, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk notes. “Oh, just we had a very interesting conversation,” Beverley said Friday. “The PA is like a family… You don’t always agree with your family members, and that’s OK. You communicate about it and you try to make it better.” Beverley interrupted Roberts more than once, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reports, and shot back “No, I pay your salary,” when Roberts objected. Other players, including Chris Paul and Udonis Haslem, intervened and admonished Beverley.
Players showed the power in their voices and action by sitting out games but must wield their influence wisely, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated opines. Players are hurting emotionally and want answers, but there aren’t any easy ones. Changes can only come in small increments, and there is only so much NBA owners can do to alter that, Mannix adds.
Paul has done a remarkable job leading the Players Association, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said to The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto and other media members. “I don’t think there’s ever been a president of the Players Association that’s had to endure and handle what he’s had to handle this season,” Donovan said.