NBA commissioner Adam Silver revealed that he doesn’t expect the 2020-21 NBA season to begin this year, but that January is the “earliest” that the season would begin.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver tells Bob Costas on @CNN that his “best guess” is that next season will begin in January at the earliest
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) September 22, 2020
The 2019-20 season is expected to wrap up in the NBA’s Orlando, Fla. bubble sometime in October of this year.
However, Silver plans on having a full season in 2020-21, meaning that each team will play 82 regular season games with a full playoff schedule.
Because of this, it seems likely that the season won’t begin until 2021 to give the teams in the bubble enough rest this offseason.
The NBA’s goal for 2020-21, Silver said, remains playing a “standard season” … meaning 82 games plus playoffs
Silver, though, acknowledged to Costas that it will most likely be a 2021 season with no games played in 2020 after completion of the NBA Bubble schedule in October
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) September 22, 2020
It is also likely that the NBA is attempting to maximize its chance to get fans in arenas next season.
While teams that made the postseason, or were at least invited to the Orlando, Fla. bubble, probably won’t mind the pushed back start date, the eight teams not invited will likely go 10 months without appearing in a competitive game.
The NBA currently is in the conference finals in this year’s playoffs.
