NBA: National Basketball Players Association approves flag off date for 2020/21 season

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has approved the league’s proposal for the 2020-21 NBA season, subject to further confirmation.

The approval includes starting the 2020-21 season on 22 December with the schedule touted to be 72 games long.

The start date announcement followed a formal vote of player representatives, the NPBA says.

“Additional details remain to be negotiated and the NBPA is confident that the parties will reach agreement on these remaining issues relevant to the upcoming season,” the NBPA says in a statement.

Training camp for teams is expected to open by 1 December 2020 while the NBA Draft is scheduled for November 18.

Players had initially resisted the plan for the new kickoff date for the 2020-21 season as they wanted a longer offseason after the mentally exhausting Orlando bubble.

The winners of last season’s championship, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the runners up, Miami Heat will now have an offseason just over two months long. The Celtics and Nuggets will both lose a significant amount of time off of their offseasons as well.

However, this plan ensures the league gets on track to return to its typical October-June schedule for the 2020-21 plan while as much revenue as possible will be preserved even as the coronavirus pandemic continue to rage.

ESPN had reported that finishing the 2020-21 season before next year’s Tokyo Olympics in mid-July would be worth between $500m and $1 billion in short and long-term revenues to the league and players.

Should the new season start by 22 December 2020, it would leave just seven weeks before the opening of the new season and there is no indication when or if games will be played in front of fans.

The NBA lost four months to the coronavirus between March and July and was the first pro league to suspend play amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now desperately trying to make up that time and return to its original schedule.

The 2020 offseason became a casualty as a result, and basketball will return far sooner than anyone could have expected just to get the league’s finances back on track as quickly as possible.