Hometown Broadcasting Sports Thursday 4/2/20
2 April 2020 Sports
With uncertainly looming around the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA and NBPA are engaged in preliminary discussions on reducing player pay in the event the rest of the season is canceled, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The two sides are discussing the collective bargaining agreement’s “force majeure” clause that addresses pay reduction in the event of canceled games. It could lead to the league withholding up to 25 percent of player salaries for the remainder of the season, according to the report.
The NBPA reportedly sent a letter to players on March 13 reminding them of the clause that addresses an event that “makes it economically impracticable for the NBA to perform its obligation” in terms of player pay.
The clause calls for players to lose around 1 percent of their salary for every game not played. Most teams have played 64 or 65 of their scheduled 82 regular-season games. The cancellation of games would automatically trigger the clause. For now, players continue to be paid as scheduled, and the league is not planning on canceling games as it considers different scenarios for playing out the season. The New York Post’s Mark Berman reported earlier this week that one of the scenarios being floated involves the playoffs being played at a single site without fans and precluded by a truncated version of the remainder of the regular season. Las Vegas, Orlando, Atlantic City and the Bahamas are among the sites being considered, according to the report.
League executives including Silver have already undergone a 20 percent pay reduction, according to an earlier report from Wojnarowski.
-0-
The NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks remain confident the coronavirus pandemic won’t put a permanent halt to the season and that they’ll get to resume chasing their first league title in nearly half a century.
The Bucks had a league-best 53-12 record when play was suspended three weeks ago. With Giannis Antetokounmpo having a a potential second straight MVP season, the Bucks seemed poised to make a run at the title that has eluded this franchise since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led them to an NBA championship in 1971. Bucks general manager Jon Horst thinks they will get that opportunity.
“We believe that we’re going to play,” Horst said Wednesday in a conference call. “Everything that we’re doing every day in our communications, in our preparations, everything we talk about is being prepared to play at some point, finish out the season and have a resumption.”
-0-
Thursday, the Green Bay Packers will launch “Legacy: 100 Seasons of the Green Bay Packers” on packers.com and on the team’s mobile app, with a new episode about each decade set to premiere online each week for the next 10 weeks.
“Legacy” is a 10-part documentary series looking back on a century of the Packers, with every decade represented by an individual film between one and two hours in length. The first film, 1919-1929, will be available Thursday at 7 p.m. at packers.com/legacy.
Each of the 10 episodes will premiere on packers.com/legacy, as well as on the Packers’ official Facebook and YouTube accounts, at 7 p.m. on Thursdays for the next 10 weeks. With the NFL Draft beginning April 23, Decade 4 will premiere on April 22.
The team invites fans to attend the virtual viewing party each week and to join in the conversation on social media using the hashtag #PackersLegacy. Fans watching the documentary can also take part in weekly history quizzes, with one winner each week receiving a box set of “Legacy” on Blu-ray. The quizzes will be available at packers.com/legacy.
-0-
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the All England Club announced on Wednesday that the 2020 Wimbledon Championships will be canceled. It’s the first time the tournament has been canceled since World War II.
In a statement, the All England Club explained their reasons for canceling instead of postponing, as the French Open has done. They’ve spent a significant amount of time considering the impact the UK’s public health restrictions will have on preparations, which began in April and would’ve continued right up through the June 29 start date.
In the end, due to the risk for personnel and the lack of available supplies, they decided that cancellation was the only option.
-0-
Major League Baseball hasn’t officially canceled any games amid the coronavirus pandemic, but one of the league’s biggest events of 2020 isn’t going to happen. The MLB London Series has been canceled. The league announced the news on Twitter on Wednesday.
This might be obvious, but it was a series of MLB’s games in London. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were supposed to take part in the event in 2020. The event began last season, when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox got together for a couple games in the UK. The MLB London Series is the league’s way of trying to expand the game outside the United States.
The 2020 MLB London Series was set to take place June 13 and June 14.
-0-
Newly acquired Bears quarterback Nick Foles agreed to a massive pay cut to officially join the competition with Mitchell Trubisky in Chicago.
NFL Network first reported the parameters of the restructure.
Foles is no longer owed the $56.9 million remaining on the contract he signed last March with the Jacksonville Jaguars and instead shifted his base pay to a fully guaranteed, three-year, $24 million deal. That includes an opt-out clause after the 2020 season and $8 million guaranteed in 2020.
The $32.9 million reduction affords Foles the chance to compete for the starting job with the Bears under coach Matt Nagy, who has coached Foles at previous stops.
Foles signed a four-year, $88 million deal in free agency last March to join the Jaguars. However, he got hurt in the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs and lost the starting job to Gardner Minshew. Head coach Doug Marrone and the Jaguars committed to building around Minshew in the offseason.
April 2, 1931: As the story goes, on April 2, 1931, a teenage girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth. Footage shows a swing and a miss on Mitchell’s first pitch. On the second, it happens again. On the third, Ruth pulls the bat towards him to avoid contact, but it’s ruled a strike. Mitchell had struck out the Sultan of Swat. Next she did the same thing to Lou Gehrig.
April 2, 2010; On April 2, 2010, the LA Lakers made sure Kobe Bryant is a very-well paid player. The Lakers and Bryant signed a three-year contract extension worth nearly $90 million. The contract would cover this 15th, 16th and 17th seasons in the league.
-0-
Share |