The Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils have notified non-contracted employees they will be subject to pay cuts starting as soon as next month, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Both teams are owned by billionaire Josh Harris.
The cuts will affect full-time employees who make $50,000 or more and would go as high as 20% for those making $70,000 or more, sources told ESPN. The teams are also expected to ask players and contracted front-office employees to take similar cuts, sources said.
News of the pay cuts was first reported by The New York Times.
In a memo sent to teams last Friday, the NBA said it plans to deliver players their full salaries due on April 1. But the league left open the possibility of recouping future salaries for canceled games on April 15 based on the force majeure provision in the collective bargaining agreement.
Force majeure allows for the withholding of 1/92.6 of a player’s seasonal salary per canceled game based upon catastrophic circumstances. The provision encompasses several scenarios, including war, natural disasters and epidemics/pandemics. (For the purposes of force majeure, the league considers each team to have played five preseason games, 82 regular-season games and 5.6 playoff games.)