Carmelo Anthony and CJ McCollum:
How Coronavirus Affects NBA Players’ Finances
Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony told his teammate CJ McCollum that “It’s going to get bad, it’s going to get really, really bad” when discussing how the coronavirus will affect the finances of NBA players. Anthony was a guest on McCollum’s podcast Pull Up with CJ McCollum last Wednesday.
During the podcast, Carmelo Anthony and CJ McCollum found out that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season. Silver had to make the tough call because Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus.
The podcast started with Anthony and McCollum talking about the financial ramifications of the coronavirus and eventually, they found out about Silver’s decision.
Anthony and McCollum discussed that some players around the NBA will not be financially ready to deal with a situation like this, especially if their paychecks stop coming.
The average NBA salary is around $7.7 million per year. The minimum salary can be from $840,000 to $2.5 million based on years of experience.
This is clearly a lot of money and it is hard to imagine a person having problems with a salary like this but having big salaries does not mean that people will be wise about how they spend it or that they will have a reserve. Anthony said that paychecks can give players a false sense of security.
“It’s not until you hit a crisis when you really understand how much money you have and what you have in the bank and what you don’t have in the bank. You start paying close attention to taxes and checks and what you’re spending,” Anthony explained.
“I am worried about a lot of players in the league who, like Melo said before, weren’t thinking about this ever happening,” McCollum said.
McCollum concluded saying: “This isn’t something you think is ever going to happen. The fact that a revenue stream, a big revenue stream is going to be taken away from a lot of players right now is a scary thought for some people who may not have prepared for disaster.”
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