© Kyle Terada | 2020 Feb 23
With the remainder of the NBA season hanging in the balance, the NBA Players Association brought to light a “doomsday provision” that exists in the current collective bargaining agreement, which could free owners from having to pay a percentage of player salaries under certain circumstances.
In what is referred to as the “force majeure event clause” the provision could be triggered by dramatic scenarios including epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and war. If triggered, players would lose 1/92.6 of their salaries for every game missed, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
At this time, the league said in an email to the players that it has no plans to trigger the provision. Players are scheduled to receive paychecks on Sunday, and those payments will be fulfilled according to the league.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Thursday that the league will remain in hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic for at least the next 30 days, and did not rule out the cancellation of the 2019-20 season.