The National Basketball Players Association will appeal the Miami Heat’s latest suspension of guard Dion Waiters, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
The intention of the appeal is not to get the 28-year-old back onto the court before his current suspension concludes, but rather an attempt to recoup the entirety, or majority, of Waiters’ wages.
Waiters is currently serving his third suspension of the year, and it is scheduled to end on Dec. 23, after the Heat play at home against the Utah Jazz.
For each game that Waiters is suspended, he loses $83,500. This season, the Syracuse University product has lost out on $1.42 million in salary as well as a $1.2 million bonus for not appearing in at least 70 games.
Winderman noted that the appeal process is not expected to happen for months and that the union had the opportunity to expedite the appeals of Waiters’ two other suspensions, but chose not to.
After this season, Waiters has one year left on the four-year, $52 million deal he signed with the Heat back in 2017. He is scheduled to make $12.65 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021.