Perhaps better than the general public, professional athletes know that everything can change in an instant.
One drive to the basket, one faulty landing or, in this case, the amount of time it took to complete a sprint to center court at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
It feels like a lifetime ago that Donnie Strack — the Thunder’s vice president of human and player performance — delivered the news that changed an entire country.
Rudy Gobert contracted the coronavirus.
Since then, like flies, the major pillars of American sports culture began to fall. No March Madness, the uncertainty of Major League Baseball, the postponing of even the Olympics — in many ways, we’ve witnessed the impact of COVID-19.
And now, even as the NBA goes dark for the foreseeable future, the spotlight shines brightly on the leader of the NBA players association, Chris Paul.
Back in 2013, in the aftermath of the NBA’s last work stoppage, Chris Paul succeeded Derek Fisher as the president of the NBA players union. As has long been the history in the NBA with respect to its work stoppages, the league’s owners took some hard-lined stances during the negotiation of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement and eventually won major concessions because a number of the league’s players simply didn’t have the financial strength to go an entire season without a paycheck.
Since then, the union had the foresight to implement a few bargaining measures to help solve the age-old problem of educating its workforce and teaching advanced economic principles.
Save as much as you can. Spend as little as possible. Learn to say “No!”
And as much as the league’s players have become wiser and more prudent, in the blink of an eye, they’ve collectively seen their livelihoods disrupted, yet again. The biggest shame in the entire situation is that it occurred much sooner than anyone ever thought it would.
Under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement, the soonest the union and the league would have had the right to opt out — and perhaps entertain the idea of yet another work stoppage — was after the conclusion of the 2022-23 season. That’s three full seasons from now.
Then everything changed.
The working relationship between the NBA’s owners and its players has always been one of mutual convenience and common goals. They two sides must coexist, but every so often, there comes a time when the players are put back in their places and forced to accept the reality that the owners have long held to be true: you need us more than we need you.
On April 1, the league’s players were paid as normal, but according to Marc Stein of the New York Times, more than 90% of the league’s workforce opted for a 12-month payment schedule to ensure a year-round cash flow. All of a sudden, that’s being threatened.
All of this will come into the greater focus if league decides to indeed make checks stop. Some league observers are indeed curious to see if the NBA's recent decision to reduce the salaries of its 100 best-paid employees proves to be a precursor to trying withhold player wages
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 31, 2020
As scores of players have stepped up and donated to causes that include paying the gameday staff across the league whose livelihoods are being disrupted, ironically, many of the league’s billionaire owners have been much slower to make any such promises. The Philadelphia 76ers thought it prudent to dock their employees 20% of their salaries before doing an about-face in the wake of a public relations dilemma.
To many observers, the message from the NBA’s owners as it related to those who would carry the burden of lost economic opportunity was clear: better you than us.
As we speak, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the league’s owners and representatives from the NBPA are having discussions centered around how the league will deal with the reality of lost wages. The two sides, according to the report, will share in any losses that may result from the cancelation of games.
For now, the players face an uncertain future with respect to when their next checks will come and whether they will be for their contractually agreed-upon amounts.
Sequestered in their homes and hoping that a resolution is reached that will allow games to resume, even in empty arenas, is where some players find themselves.
Across the league, more than 400 players now find themselves doing exactly what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and Dennis Schroeder have all season long — hoping that Chris Paul can show them the way out.
His inspiring season interrupted by a brutal pandemic, quietly, behind the scenes, the president of the NBA players union has to do his part to help not only bring basketball back to us, but to help do so on terms that he and his constituency find at least some agreeable.
It’s a challenge that he has probably been mentally preparing for, but it’s one that he’s facing three years earlier than anyone thought he would.