The NBA is looking at starting a 72-game season in December and finishing in time for players to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, reports said on Friday.
The Athletic and ESPN, citing unnamed sources, said that the league told team owners in a conference call about the plans, which would require approval by the National Basketball Players’ Association by the end of this month.
After the playoffs ended on Oct. 11 after a COVID-19 shutdown in March and a July restart, the league would have only a 72-day break before a Dec. 22 restart, three days before the NBA’s usual plethora of Christmas Day game offerings, The Athletic Web site reported.
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The move would allow greater income and more games compared with a January restart, and allow the league to crown a champion and leave a window for NBA talent to play for homelands in the Tokyo Olympics, where the US team would seek a fourth consecutive gold medal.
A play-in tournament for the final playoff spot in each conference, an idea developed due to the pandemic-hit season, would continue, the reports said.
The players’ union must agree upon any deal regarding when to start, with ESPN reporting that there had been talk about a mid-January start on the Martin Luther King Jr holiday and staging more games later when chances might be better for spectators to attend.
USA Basketball has started asking about player availability for the July 23 start of the Tokyo Olympic Games to allow time to select players and prepare for the tournament.
The NBA would prefer to play in home arenas rather than a bubble and is looking at playing a team multiple times on a trip to reduce travel.
Areas that allow spectators in arenas might have testing for fans in courtside seating and updated air purifying systems.
In the 2011-2012 season, which was shortened by a labor dispute, the NBA began a 66-game per club campaign on Dec. 25 and finished on June 21, a timetable that would allow for a US team of NBA players to compete in Tokyo and set up a 2021-2022 season starting in October, returning the league to its usual overall timetable.
Talks continue between the NBA and the union over such issues as financial breakdowns and a salary cap for next season.
ESPN reported that Friday would be a deadline for talks and mark eight weeks before Christmas, NBA commissioner Adam Silver having said that there would be at least eight weeks between a union deal and the start of next season.
The NBA has set the NBA Draft for Nov. 18, with free agency expected to begin soon afterward for the 2020-2021 campaign.
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