Sooner than later, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needs to finalize the timeline for next season.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the NBA in a tough situation. Since Commissioner Adam Silver made the call to shut the league down back in March, the only way to salvage the season was to continue in a bubble environment in the summertime.
The 2019-2020 NBA season resumed in late July and eventually concluded in mid-October. Silver and the NBA initially hoped the 2020-2021 start could have a quick turnaround — so the league shot for a December 1 target date. As we know now, beginning in less than a month is out of the question.
For quite some time, Silver made it seem as if the 2020-2021 season wouldn’t begin until January at the earliest — but the league hasn’t given up on a late December start just yet. When will we know for sure when the NBA will tip-off again? The timeline is unclear. What we do know now, though, is that players and the league have to agree soon because they are running out of time to create a plan for a December tip-off.
According to ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, Silver and the NBA held a conference call on Monday with all 30 NBA General Managers present. Per Wojnarowski’s report, the league is still hopeful of a December 22 start, but the Player’s Association has to agree — and they have to accept the timeline soon.
“With training camps presumably needing to start within a month — Commissioner Adam Silver told teams today: ‘We’re running out of time,'” Wojnarowski reports. A couple of weeks ago, Silver made it known the league wants to give teams an eight-week notice before the start of the 2020-2021 NBA season. If the players agree on the league’s desired date, everything would need to be agreed upon this week.
Justin Grasso covers the NBA for The Sports Daily. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
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