Tag: 2020-21 nba season

Silver: next NBA season could be delayed past Jan.1 to have live games

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver revealed the 2020-21 season might be delayed to allow for live games on the advice of Dr. Fauci.

The next NBA offseason is getting longer every day.

Appearing on a CNN panel to discuss politics in the league he is the head of, Commissioner Adam Silver shared the 2020-21 season is likely to start later than hoped based off of conversations he’s had with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been in conversation with Silver on the issue of when to start next season, with team Governors and the league preferring at least some degree of live attendance and a non-bubble format to recoup revenue lost to the pandemic.

“My best guess is even though it’ll be the 2020-21 season, that the season won’t start until 2021,” said Silver on the panel discussion.

“We said the earliest we would start is Christmas of this year,” he added. “But the more I’m learning and listening to Dr. Fauci this morning, I continue to believe we’re going to be better off going into January. The goal for us next season is to play a standard season.”

The NBA hopes to avoid scheduling much or all of the coming season in a similar bubble format and the costs and stress it places on players, staff and front offices and their families.

Ongoing relationships with arenas and their employees would also be significantly impacted should much of another season pass without live games.

The hope is that with more time, there may be better knowledge and technology to make such an outcome work.

“There’s still a lot that we need to learn in terms of rapid testing, for example. Would that be a means for getting fans into our buildings?” Silver asked. “Would there be other protections from the things that we are learning in Orlando currently on the campus down there?”

While basketball fans may not be excited about the prospect with another potential gap wreaking havoc on the schedule (and the lack of games), for now it seems a prudent decision.

Better to admit more time is needed before things can safely approach life before COVID-19 in the NBA than make uninformed decisions that could significantly impact the lives of many well beyond the scope of the league.

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NBA tells Board of Governors ’20-21 season won’t start before Christmas

The league office informed the Board of Governors the 2020-21 NBA season will not be starting before Christmas, and other dates are in flux.

The potential offseason and 2020-21 NBA season schedule came into clearer focus this morning after league offices informed the Board of Governors that the 2020-21 season will not begin sooner than Christmas Day, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

The 2020 NBA Draft — currently tentatively scheduled for November 18th after being moved from October — may also be shifted as further plans unfold.

The moves came after it became evident team Governors were not confident in the league’s hoped-for rapid turn around from the 2019-20 season, slated to end in mid-October, with the 2020 Draft originally moved to the 18th of that month from its usual summer slot.

The additional time may also bring clarity about the possibility of hosting games in home arenas, potentially injecting much-needed revenue into local economies if the local pandemic situation is amenable to such a course of action by that time.

For now, the focus is on the successful completion of the 2020 NBA Playoffs, but with just over a month left before the projected end of the 2019-20 NBA season left, expect further decisions to be made about scheduling and format to come soon.

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Celtics, NBA may be in for a condensed 2020-21 season

The Boston Celtics and the NBA’s other 29 teams may find the 2020-21 season shorter due to the pandemic, whether by calendar date or number of games.

The Boston Celtics and the rest of the NBA might be playing a lot more back-to-backs in the 2020-21 season if Atlanta Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk is right.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reports the Hawks head honcho relating that the league is considering condensing its schedule next season in order to return to a more traditional NBA calendar.

At present, the coronavirus-interrupted season will resume at the end of July, and finish by mid-October, with the 2020-21 season start planned with a tentative target of December 1.

“Because of this circumstance, I think the league wants to stay as close to its original schedule as possible,” shared Schlenk. “There’s a lot of different reasons for that — the college season, the draft and how all of that plays out. So that’s why they’ve laid out a timeline where it would be a very quick turnaround from the NBA Finals to the start of the season.”

Cutting games for a season is another option the league could take, whether on a permanent or single-season basis.

This is far from a settled matter, as especially high ratings for the league’s late summer postseason and concern for pushing players too hard in a condensed season are among many factors which may push or pull the future NBA schedule one way or another.

That the Olympics would potentially overlap with the regular season is also a concern — as much for players’ desire to participate as for the games being a potentially tough ratings competitor.

The prospect of near-constant games from August to May may prove a more difficult sell than cutting games on a provisional basis, but there’s many months ahead to plan based on how events unfold.

Particularly with a potential second wave of the pandemic or related issue not off the table as a major concern.

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