Kyrie Irving was named on Friday as a “driving force” behind questions regarding the NBA’s plan to resume the 2019-2020 season in Orlando next month.
Though Irving may be rallying some players who feel their voice was not heard loudly enough when the Orlando plan was agreed to by both the players and owners, there are some players who apparently are bothered by what they feel has been a duplicitous approach from the Brooklyn Nets guard.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Irving was among the two dozen-plus team representatives who were part of a conference call a week ago about restarting the season. Woj’s report says that Irving mostly asked “mundane” questions, such as whether an injured player like him would count towards the Nets’ amount of people in the “bubble” and whether NBA sponsors would be allowed on campus.
Irving is a union representative for the Nets and a vice president on the executive board for the players association. The vote on restarting the season was unanimous — 28-0. That’s what apparently has left many players confused by Irving seemingly working against the restart.
Irving is said to be a driving force on questioning the optics of a restarted season and rallying the not as high-profile players to consider these and other concerns.
Many of the high-profile players have great concerns about the long-term consequences to not restarting the season. For example, the financial implications would be significant.
If the season were not restarted, the players would lose:
– 25 percent of their salaries for this season
– 10 percent more that is held in escrow amounts
Not only that, but next season’s total revenue pie would be less, which would hurt everyone involved, including the players. Some agents also fear that the owners would respond by locking the players out and giving them less favorable financial terms on the split of Basketball Related Income, which is 50-50.
In other words, while Irving may be intending to give many other players a voice, there are severe consequences if they want to cancel the rest of the season that should also be heavily considered.
