Next NBA season likely starting 2021
Mark Medina
Amid uncertainty about the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the availability of a safe and proven vaccine, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conceded Tuesday next season likely would not start on time. His remarks were based on feedback he received from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“My best guess is even though it’ll be the 2020-21 season, that the season won’t start until 2021,” Silver said on CNN during a panel discussion about the politics of the NBA. “We said the earliest we would start is Christmas of this year. But the more I’m learning and listening to Dr. Fauci this morning, I continue to believe we’re going to be better off going into January. The goal for us next season is to play a standard season.”
Silver said the NBA still hopes for an 82-game regular season and playoffs at home arenas with fans. After suspending the season on March 11 because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the NBA resumed in late July at a Disney campus site near ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. But the NBA would prefer not to have another campus site for next season because of the additional costs, added time away from family and revenue streams it can generate through ticket and concession sales.
“There’s still a lot that we need to learn in terms of rapid testing, for example. Would that be a means for getting fans into our buildings?” Silver said. “Would there be other protections from the things that we are learning in Orlando currently on the campus down there?
“And clearly learning from a lot of other sports with what baseball is currently doing and what football is doing and what college sports have begun playing. There is a lot of new information in the marketplace that we have begun looking at. But the goal is to play a standard season.”
By doing that, though, the NBA’s season would likely overlap with the Tokyo Summer Olympics scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8. The NBA’s traditional season ends in mid-to-late June before players begin training for the Olympics in early July. Even if the NBA compressed its schedule with more back-toback games, it seems inevitable it would face a calendar crunch.
“It would be tough for us to make a decision in January based on the Olympics happening on schedule when that is so unclear,” Silver said. “I just add that there are a lot of great U.S. players. We may be up against a scenario where the top 15 NBA players aren’t competing in the Olympics. But other great American players are competing.”