NBPA Agrees To December 22 Start Date For New Season

The 2020-2021 NBA season could start on December 22 after the NBPA agreed to the league’s plans to have a short 72-game season meaning that teams will have a short time to recover for the new season.

With the new start date, the teams will have to start training camps on December 1; this will be barely seven weeks after the last season ended.

The agreement was announced on Thursday after the NBPA representatives revealed that it has tentatively agreed to the shortened 72-game regular season before Christmas.

A 30-player representative, which included a player each from each team, voted in support of the plan, which only gained grounds a few weeks ago with the NBA’s television partners’ backing.

Meanwhile, there are other issues to be sorted as there are other things, including outstanding salary-cap and health and safety matters, to be negotiated as revealed by the NBPA in a statement.

“Additional details remain to be negotiated, and the NBPA is confident that the parties will reach agreement on these remaining issues relevant to the upcoming season,” the union — the National Basketball Players Association — said in a statement.

However, the new season will run into Mid-May, while playoffs will run into July with ten games less than previous NBA seasons.

Rather than 82 NBA games, there will be 72 NBA games if the season starts on December 22 in order to complete the season before the Tokyo Olympics starts. The Tokyo Olympics will run from July 23 to August 8 in 2021.

Also, while the NBA will avoid direct competition with the Olympics with the December 22 start and a 72-Game season, it will help the NBA return to its normal October to June schedule in the 2021-22 season.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu