Report: Lakers To Ask Some Senior Level Staff To Defer 20 Percent Of Salary
The Lakers are asking a select group of senior level staff to defer 20 percent of their salaries, according to The Athletic.
The NBA was suspended March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and there's currently no timeline for its return.
A salary deferment from the team's higher paid officials could protect some lower-earning employees, according to ESPN.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season nearly four weeks ago after Utah's Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
The virus has killed 12,064 people in the United States as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Silver said he doesn't know if or when the season will resume during a live-streamed interview with Turner Sports' Ernie Johnson on the NBA's Twitter account on Monday.
"We should just accept that at least for the month of April, we won't be in a position to make any decisions," Silver said. "...It doesn't mean that internally, both the league and in discussions with our our players and the teams, we aren't looking at many different scenarios for restarting the season. But it honestly is just too early given what's happening right now to even be able to project or predict where we'll be in a few weeks."
Before the hiatus, the Lakers were atop the Western Conference with a record of 49-14. They had made the playoffs for the first time since 2013 and were hoping to compete for their first championship since 2010.
