While the NBA and the NBPA managed to come together on the plan for the Disney bubble — which was a success — it appears things aren’t going to be quite as simple when it comes to the 2020-21 season.
As some NFL teams have welcomed fans back to stadiums in varying capacities as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the NBA hopes to do the same in 2020-21 — which Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai has expressed more the once since the 2020 NBA Playoffs concluded.
Throughout the league’s planning, varying target dates for the start of the 2020-21 season have been thrown around. Most recently, Christmas came up again as a target date, with a slate around 70 games in mind, per ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.
But there was pushback on the part of players and the NBPA. They don’t want to start before mid-January.
According to Marc Stein of the New York Times, there’s a chance the 2020-21 season will only be 50 games long if the season starts in mid-January “because the league’s television partners do not want the 2020-21 season to stray past mid-July … or clash with the Tokyo Olympics.”
The Pacers' Malcolm Brogdon, who is on the union's executive committee, told @Rachel__Nichols yesterday he expects today's deadline on talks to be extended for the fourth time this year.
But a resolution in the standoff is expected by next week with all sides antsy for clarity.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 30, 2020
PHOTOS: Brooklyn Nets player salaries for 2020-21 and beyond