NBA, players’ association finalize restart plan
Basketball moved closer to a return on Friday.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced that they “have finalized a comprehensive plan for a July 30 restart to the 2019-20 season, which includes stringent health and safety protocols, a singlesite campus at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the goal of taking collective action to combat systemic racism and promote social justice.”
Agreement was reached “on health and safety protocols that will govern the resumption of the season. The rigorous program, which addresses risks related to COVID-19 and focuses on the well-being of players, coaches, officials and staff, was developed in consultation with public health experts, infectious disease specialists and government officials.”
Both sides also agreed with Disney that all games will take place with no fans at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
There will be 22 teams coming back and the schedule will be announced on Friday night.
Earlier Friday the NBA revealed that 302 players were tested on June 23 and 16 have tested positive for COVID-19.
“Any player who tested positive will remain in selfisolation until he satisfies public health protocols for discontinuing isolation and has been cleared by a physician.”
The release read: “As announced on Wednesday, the NBA and the NBPA have agreed in principle that the goal of the season restart will be to find tangible and sustainable ways to address racial inequality across the country. Leaders from the NBA and the NBPA have also discussed strategies to increase Black representation across the NBA and its teams, ensure greater inclusion of Black-owned and operated businesses across NBA business activities, and form an NBA foundation to expand educational and economic development opportunities across the Black community. In recognition that long-term change can only come from an informed and sustained commitment, conversations regarding these efforts will continue and additional details will be released at a later date.”
The defending champion Toronto Raptors are already in a different part of Florida, having arrived in Fort Myers on Monday. Group workouts will only begin once teams have reported to the NBA Campus at Disney.
A whopping 22.3% of COVID-19 tests from Thursday in Collier County, Fla. were positive. Fort Myers is part of Collier County.
“We have worked together with the Players Association to establish a restart plan that prioritizes health and safety, preserves competitive fairness and provides a platform to address social justice issues,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “We are grateful to our longtime collaborator Disney for its role in playing host and making this return to play possible, and we also thank the public health officials and infectious disease specialists who helped guide the creation of comprehensive medical protocols and protections.”
NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said: “It is very exciting to officially announce the restart of the 2019-2020 season. It has taken true collaboration between the League and the Union — special kudos to our Executive Committee and several other team reps — along with the continued support and assistance from medical experts, public health officials and many others. Additionally, our platform in Orlando presents a unique opportunity to extend the ongoing fight against systemic racism and police brutality in this country. We will continue to work with our players and the League to develop specific plans in Orlando as well as long-term initiatives to bring about real change on these issues.”
Teams participating will be the eight teams from each conference with the highest current winning percentage, along with six that are currently within six games of the eighth seed in either conference. Each team will play eight “seeding games” to conclude its “regular season.”
Once the seeding games are completed: “The seven teams in each conference with the highest combined winning percentages across regular-season games and seeding games will be the first through seventh seeds for the NBA Playoffs for that conference. If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage (regular-season games and seeding games) in a conference is more than four games ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference, then the team with the eighth-best winning percentage would be the eighth playoff seed in that conference.”
Further, “If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage in a conference (Team 8) is four games or fewer ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference (Team 9), then those two teams would compete in a play-in tournament to determine the eighth playoff seed in the conference. The play-in tournament will be double elimination for Team 8 and single elimination for Team 9.
“The NBA’S standard playoff tiebreaker procedures will be used to break any ties on the basis of winning percentage. Once the 16-team playoff field is set, the NBA Playoffs will proceed in a traditional conference-based format with four rounds and best-of-seven series in each round. The 2020 NBA Finals will end no later than Oct. 13.”