NBA willing to play in the fall
Magic CEO said league is prepared to wait to complete season.
Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins said the NBA is determined to resume play and is willing to wait until September to complete the 2019-20 season that has been suspended indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic.
Reports after the initial shutdown indicated the league was hoping for a return in mid-June, but Martins said Tuesday the NBA’s calendar has shifted.
Martins said the league now is looking at a possible return later in the summer and is considering pushing back the start of the 2020-21 season if that’s what it takes to complete the current season. He said the NBA is willing to extend the season into September if necessary.
“Our league has decided that we’re going to try to get in as much of our season and playoffs as the data will allow us to,” Martins told the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force’s Guidelines for Business Reopening Working Group Tuesday morning. “We’ll play as late as Labor Day if we have to and even delay, as was reported this past week, we’ve been having initial discussions about even delaying the start of next season based on trying to get as much as this season in as possible.”
The NBA season was suspended March 11 when Utah Jazz center Rudy