On Friday, the NBA G League announced that the start of the regular season has been postponed from Dec. 27 until Jan. 5 due to a variety of factors surrounding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The news was first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The postponement will give teams the opportunity to safely return players to market following the Christmas holiday and to replenish their rosters following call-ups to the NBA. The league will announce a plan regarding those games postponed at a later date.
The league recently wrapped up the Showcase Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada, a 14-game tournament that started in November. They were set to start the 36-game regular-season schedule on Dec. 27 but will now delay it due to rising COVID-19 cases and call-ups to the NBA.
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With NBA teams scrambling to keep their rosters full, over 40 players have been called up from the G League and signed to hardship contracts during the month of December. The signings have depleted rosters in the G League and the postponement will help teams replace those players.
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