By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
While the NBA is planning to restart the season on July 31 in Orlando, Florida, not all players are that eager to actually participate in the “bubble concept” that the league is scheduling. This will come at a cost.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, NBA players will be facing a total loss of 1.2 billion in salary if the season is canceled. This sum results from the 300 million in salary that players are already losing, an additional 25% in wages if the season won’t resume due to clubs implementing force majeure plus an extra 10% held in escrow.
There have been reports on players, including superstars, not wanting to play again this summer. Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter specifically said that he heard notable All-Stars who won’t be up to returning to action until there’s a vaccine for the coronavirus.
It’s not only the virus though.
After the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a cop in Minneapolis, several NBA players, including league superstars, joined the protests that have been going on in the USA against racism. Wojnarowski reported that there is now a new concern among players that the public’s attention will shift from the protests to the games.
A “widely respected NBA player” said to ESPN that: “Once we start playing basketball again, the news will turn from systemic racism to who did what in the game last night. It’s a crucial time for us to be able to play and blend that and impact what’s happening in our communities. “We are asking ourselves, ‘Where and how can we make the biggest impact?’ Mental health is part of the discussion too, and how we handle all of that in a bubble.”