- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver informed the Board of Governors that the target date for resuming the season is July 31.
- There are four scenarios about the format of play.
- According to various sources, Disney World in Orlando would be a centralized location for the resume of play.
Silver Reveals the Target Date
The NBA Commissioner Adam Silver contacted the league’s Board of Governors to inform them about his plan to restart the league on July 31. At that point, the entire situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemics should be under control, and the league, along with the teams, would have enough time to provide safe and optimal conditions for resuming the play.
Shams Charania from The Athletic revealed this news.
“NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league office informed Board of Governors that July 31 is a target date for the return of season, sources tell,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
The same insider stated that currently there are four scenarios for the resume of play.
The first one is including 16 teams who are going directly to the playoffs. The second involves 20 teams who will play some sort of a group stage tournament.
The third scenario has 22 participants, and adds six teams who have a possibility of reaching the playoffs. There would be a play-in tournament to determine the seedings. Something like that has already been seen in the NHL.
Eight teams would be out of the picture here, but all of them don’t have any chances of entering the postseason. It is something Michael Jordan talked about, suggesting that the league erases all the games with no competitive meaning, and reduces health risks.
And finally, the fourth scenario includes playing all 72 games, as if nothing happened.
Silver Also Speaking With NBPA
Adrian Wojnarowski also shared the information yesterday that Silver had a conference call with the Board of Governors yesterday and that there is still no “broad ownership consensus” about many things.
He would also add, that the Commisioner is going to continue talking with the NBAPA all in order to listen to their demands. Yet in the end, the owners will make the final call.
“Silver and NBPA will keep talking on details of a return-to-play proposal. Silver has spent a lot of time listening to factions of teams make cases, but in near future, he’ll have to ask owners to get behind a plan that he believes to make the best sense,” Woj wrote on his Twitter.
If everything goes well, and the sides find a fitting solution, it is expected that the campaign continues in Disney World in Orlando. Those are just rumors, but they have been circulating for a long time.
The location has all the resources for organizing games, as well as televising the same, plus it would be superb for all the teams to be isolated and located in the same area.
After hearing Silver’s intention to continue the campaign on July 31, the entire NBA community went wild, and it seems that the fans will also create an additional pressure on the owners to strike a deal as soon as possible and get the basketball back.
