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NBA commissioner Adam Silver told team executives that there is limited time to approve the new season if the league is going to be able to start on their ideal date of Dec. 22.
According to ESPN, Silver said “time is running out” for starting next season in 2020. If the NBA manages to start this early, officials believe the league can make between $500 million and $1 billion in revenue that would be unavailable if it started at a later date.
Under this scenario, there would be a 72-game season that would end in mid-May with Finals finishing around July 21, just ahead of the Summer Olympics.
The National Basketball Players Association is debating whether that start date, less than two months after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Finals, gives enough time for rest, offseason activity and training camps.
While the Lakers and Miami Heat played recently, 22 of the 30 teams last played before Sept. 3, which gives them well over three months off. Non-playoff teams haven’t played since at least mid-August.
A typical offseason has four full months between the Finals and the start of the new season, which amounts to half a year for non-playoff teams.
The union started conference calls this week with players from each team, according to The Athletic. Also under consideration is a start date around Jan. 18 for a season that would have 60 games and end in June with the Finals ending around Aug. 21.
Both proposals include a play-in tournament for the seventh through 10th seeds in both conferences.
League officials want to begin the season earlier to avoid competing with the Olympics and to take advantage of Christmas week which traditionally generates hundreds of millions in revenue, according to The Athletic.
The league and union hopes to keep the salary cap at $109 million and the luxury tax at $132 million.
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