dangolka (CBS) — The 2020 NBA season continues to be going, and gained’t end up till someday in October. The 2020-21 season was slated to tip off simply a short while later in December, however that and different vital dates are actually being pushed again, in keeping with The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
These dates embrace the 2020 NBA Draft and the beginning of free company, which had been each set to be held in mid-October. These are among the most frantic instances within the NBA, and with them coming only a few weeks after the present season was slated to finish, it was going to be much more wild.
The draft may now happen in mid-November, in keeping with The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor. The brand new dates for each the Draft and free company are nonetheless TBD
The NBA and NBPA have agreed to push again key dates similar to Oct. 16 draft, Oct. 18 free company and 2020-21 season, sources inform @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. New dates will likely be decided later.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 8, 2020
A number of group executives advised me this previous week they count on the NBA draft to happen in the midst of November.
Groups would nonetheless wish to have some form of NBA Mix. Pushing the draft date creates extra time for a mix after the NBA Finals. It’s all TBD although. https://t.co/JRbvFQ3l6c
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) September 9, 2020
Had the NBA gone ahead with the dates it had already deliberate, it will have given groups a two-month offseason to prepare for 2020-21. That at all times appeared a bit rushed, so the push-back ought to come as no shock.
Delaying the beginning of the season additionally will increase the possibilities of having followers within the stands when the 2020-21 season suggestions off, which is one thing NBA comissioner Adam Silver talked about again on the NBA Draft Lottery in August. He even hinted that the Dec. 1 begin date for subsequent season may very well be moved final month.
“December 1, now that we’re working by means of the season, is feeling a bit bit early to me,” Silver mentioned. “Our primary purpose is to get followers again in our arenas. My sense is in working with the gamers affiliation, if we may push again even a bit longer and it will increase the probability of getting followers in arenas, that’s what we’d be concentrating on.”
Welcoming followers again into stadiums should still be a pipe dream, however the NBA goes to do its finest to make it occur.
