Carchia: NBL players face potential pay and insurance cuts or risk being stood down

According to Sportando's Emiliano Carchia, players were told that league and team owners had made several requests --which included a 50% pay cut that's capped at minimum wage, removal of career-ending injury insurance, health insurance-- or face risk of being stood down.

The measures are unsurprising, and likely are related to the lack of sponsorship in the current climate caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and could be a worst case scenario.

NBL owner, Larry Kestelman had also shared his thoughts directly with Sportando on the situation.

"What we are doing is seeing how we can look after our players during this terrible time around the world. We’re having productive conversations with [the Australian Basketball Players' Association] and confident we will find common ground.

“It’s a tough time for all, but by working together we will come out the other end strong. We are still confident we will get our season away as [we] have 6 months to get through this and feel lucky we are in our off season.“

There is no certainty in the immediate future on how this will impact domestic sports and the NBL's 2020/21 season, with the lack of extensive community testing, no confirmation of a vaccine and a means of mass rapid testing. Free agency could be delayed, and the option of having imports --and non-Australian Next Stars-- remain an unanswered question, given current travel restrictions. The league could be looking at a surge in domestic player opportunities in the next season.