Though Friday is the first day in which NBA players will receive salary reductions due to the current season’s COVID-19 hiatus, Houston Rockets stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook may not notice the changes to their paychecks to the same extent that most players will.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed last month to a plan to withhold 25% of each player’s paycheck beginning May 15.
But the finances are different for players who received salary advances last offseason, such as Westbrook. With some variance depending on exact contract terms, those players will potentially need to pay their teams back from next season’s 2020-21 payments.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks explains:
Three other top-10 earners — Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry and James Harden — will not face the full 25% reduction because they received salary advances in the offseason. While Chris Paul and Westbrook both make around $38 million this season, Paul will have $401,109 reduced from his May 15 paycheck and Westbrook will lose $200,555. However, Westbrook will owe the Rockets $200,000 in 2020-21 salary.
Teams will withhold more than $30 million from player paychecks on Friday.
LeBron, Steph, John Wall, Blake Griffin and Paul George have already been paid in full, but will owe an IOU in the fall. (via @BobbyMarks42) https://t.co/c9RYA7o9XJ
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 14, 2020
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Here’s a look at the complete salary books for the Houston Rockets, both for the 2019-20 NBA season and beyond.
If the current season is completed in its entirety, teams will be responsible for refunding the full amount to their players. However, it is unclear if the league plans to play all (or any) of its postponed regular-season games, since many players on losing teams apparently aren’t interested in continuing their seasons after the extended layoff.
According to the collective bargaining agreement, players lose roughly 1% of salary per canceled game, based on the force majeure provision that covers catastrophic circumstances, such as a pandemic. The force majeure is automatically triggered once games are canceled.
All teams had between 15 and 20 regular-season games remaining. As such, should the league restart by moving immediately to the playoffs, Marks explains the financial consequences:
If the league cancels the remainder of the regular season and jumps right into the playoffs, players likely will see the 25% paycheck reduction increase as high as 40%. If the league cancels the entire season, including the postseason, players are projected to lose more than $1 billion in total salary.
According to Marks, the union has told players that it could be June 15 before they know whether games will be canceled, and how many. At the moment, all NBA games have only been postponed.
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