Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony talked to his teammate CJ McCollum recently and said: “It’s going to get bad, it’s going to get really, really bad.” The two were discussing how the coronavirus will affect the NBA players financially. Melo was a guest on McCollum’s podcast Pull Up with CJ McCollum last Wednesday.

Carmelo Anthony and CJ McCollum found out that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season while they were doing the podcast. Silver made the tough call because Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.

The podcast started with Anthony and McCollum discussing the financial ramifications of the coronavirus outbreak and later they found out about Silver’s decision.

Anthony and McCollum also talked about how some players around the league will not be financially ready to deal this problem, especially if the paychecks stop coming.

The average NBA salary is $7.7 million per year. The minimum salary ranges between $840,000 to $2.5 million, based on years of experience.

This is a lot of money, so is hard to imagine someone having trouble with a salary like this but you have to keep in mind that having big salaries does not guaranteed that those people will be wise about how they spend it. According to Melo, 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 said.

“I am worried about a lot of players in the league who, like Melo said before, weren’t thinking about this ever happening,” McCollum explained.

McCollum then stated: “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.”