Sixers

NBA Players Reportedly Believe a December 22nd Start is “Inevitable”

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 4th, 2020 · 10:24 AM EST

---

Previously, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver didn’t think his league would resume play until January at the earliest.

That target date was moved up to December 22nd, with the NBA reportedly interested in playing a 72-game season that would end before the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in July.

The players are apparently looking to start around MLK day, in mid-January, which would crunch the schedule a bit.

As such, Shams Charania at The Athletic says a vote will take place tonight or tomorrow regarding that December start date:

“The National Basketball Players Association is planning to hold a vote on Thursday night or Friday morning regarding the Dec. 22 start format to the 2020-21 season amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources told The Athletic.

The NBPA, led by executive director Michele Roberts, started formal conference calls with players from all 30 teams this week. Players have been holding calls with the NBPA beginning Monday and will go through Thursday morning. Players coming out of several meetings believe a Dec. 22 start is inevitable, sources said.”

Obviously getting the league on TV prior to Christmas would be a big deal for media partners and result in millions in additional revenue. If they started in January, they’d have to play probably less than 60 regular season games in order to wrap up before the Summer Olympics, which would result in a revenue loss.

If the NBA does resume in December, the plan would be to hold a three-week training camp with a small handful of preseason games. Each squad would play 14 back to backs while travel is reduced 25 percent. The regular season would end in mid-May and then the finals would wrap up right before the Olympics, on July 22nd.