From Rocky Season to No Season, Inside the N.B.A.’s Decision to Freeze

There is “an uneasiness” among players about “how quickly the virus can spread,” said Todd Ramasar, an agent who represents a number of N.B.A. players, including Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors, who matched up directly against Gobert in a game on Monday.

In a phone interview, Ramasar noted players’ discomfort, but he also praised the league for its response to Gobert’s positive test.

“I think the N.B.A. is moving at a better rate than our government is,” Ramasar said.

The ramifications for the N.B.A., if this postponement endures or morphs into an outright cancellation of the season, could be felt for years. The league, which brings in billions of dollars each year, would take a sizable hit in lost revenue from ticket sales, concessions and television contracts.

That damage would be in addition to revenue lost in the ongoing dispute with the Chinese government, which Silver has said could be “hundreds of millions” of dollars. The lost income would affect next year’s salary cap — the amount that teams spend on players — depressing player salaries.

It could also spark an all-out brawl with the players’ union. The league’s collective bargaining agreement allows the N.B.A. to reduce player salaries by 1/92.6th for each game missed because of, among other things, epidemics.

The league and union have not yet had any discussions about whether the N.B.A. will do so, according to a person familiar with the situation, in large part because it is still unclear whether this season’s games will be played later or, as no one could have imagined, never played at all.

“Of course it’s possible,” Silver said. “We just don’t know more at this point.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/sports/basketball/nba-canceled.html