NBA players to receive their full salary on April 15

The NBA has passed a memo confirming that players will receive full paychecks as scheduled on April 15 despite no games being played.

A little over a month has passed since NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended all games after some players were found positive with the novel coronavirus. Though none of the games are officially cancelled, they are postponed indefinitely.

The regular season was originally supposed to end on April 15, and the playoffs should start on the 18th. But at this point, no official decision has been made by the NBA on when the season will resume and in what format.

Players received full payment from their contracts on March 15th and April 1st. Negotiations began between the players union and the teams regarding withholding player salaries to share the financial burden of the league suspension. Without games, teams are not earning revenue, and together with broadcasting rights, NBA teams are losing hundreds of millions of dollars in gross profit.

Players with multi-million dollar contracts are the most significant expense for NBA teams. Hence, the league is brokering an agreement between the players union and club owners to cut player salaries, but no deal has been made so far.

Since the league ordered the teams to pay full salaries on April 15, team managements may resort to activating the "force majeure event" clause that exists in player contracts. It stipulates that players will lose 1.08% of their annual salary for each game that is cancelled.

Without any clear plan from the league, the 2019-2020 season may resume as late as September. They can continue in a shortened format, or the season can be cancelled altogether. The "force majeure event" clause may start on April 15, the scheduled end of the regular season. According to AP News, that would mean that players with minimum contracts will lose around $189,000. Superstars like Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry may lose approximately $8,000,000 from his salary for 2020.

In a typical scenario, the players union can counter with a lockdown strike to hurt team revenue. But for all intents and purposes, that's already the situation today, leaving the players with no other option but to accept.