As part of CBA negotiations, the NBA will pay $366.7 million to the players. The money will be coming from a combination of some held from players’ regular checks as escrow as well as due to a shortfall in how much money players comparatively made last year.
This was made public in a memo released by the NBA (h/t Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.)
As part of the CBA signed in 2011, players are to make about 51% of league “basketball related income” or BRI. Last season, they only earned about 48% of it. In order to reach the agreed-upon point, the owners will return $130.9 million to the players association.
Meanwhile, the players will also receive $235.8 million held from their season-long checks as escrow.
The NBPA has often withheld most if not all of this money to use as a backup plan in the event of another lockout. Both the league and the players’ association has an opt out of the current CBA in 2017. That could conceivably lead to long negotiations and perhaps another lockout like in 2011.
The likely scenario is that the NBPA holds most of the money paid by the NBA for that scenario.
