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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) that his “best guess” is that the next season won’t start until at least January, and acknowledged that the later schedule than usual could mean the best US male players will be missing next summer in Tokyo. Olympic Games.
Silver, a guest on a series of panel discussions on CNN, did not indicate that any decisions have been finalized. The league originally hoped to start on December 1 for the next season, then shifted its focus to the possibility of a late-December start, and now the goal has apparently moved again.
“I still believe that we better get to January,” Silver said in a conversation with Bob Costas during part of the “Citizen by CNN” event. “The goal for us next season is to play a standard season … an 82-game season and playoffs. And also, the objective would be to play in the local stadiums in front of the fans, but there is still a lot that we have to learn.
The NBA has not played in crowded stadiums since March 11, when the league suspended its season due to the coronavirus pandemic. A very small number of fans, maybe 30 or 40 per game, have been allowed to peek inside the NBA reset bubble at Walt Disney World in recent weeks, all of them family members or close friends of the players. All those guests are screened daily for the coronavirus, like everyone else in the bubble.
A typical NBA season has a regular season that lasts almost six months, followed by a two-month postseason. If the upcoming season is typical, and there’s no way of knowing if it will be, or could even be, a start in January could mean a regular season finale in June or July, and the playoffs will conclude in August or September.
That could greatly affect the Olympic plans.
The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 and run until August 8, if those games take place. Final qualifying rounds for the 24 teams still competing for the remaining four spots on the 12-team men’s basketball field would begin in June.
“There are a lot of great American players, and we may be facing a scenario where the top 15 players in the NBA are not competing in the Olympics, but other great American players are competing,” Silver said.
“And obviously there are a lot of NBA players who participate in the Olympics in other countries. That is something we will have to work on. “
USA Basketball has been planning several possible scenarios in recent months, but can’t make any concrete plans until it sees what the next NBA schedule officially looks like. The United States roster for the Tokyo Olympics will be 12 players; There were also 34 other players competing for other countries at the Rio Olympics.
Several NBA coaches also plan to train in the Tokyo Olympics or qualifying: Gregg Popovich of San Antonio will coach USA Basketball and will be assisted by Steve Kerr of Golden State and Lloyd Pierce of Atlanta; Golden State Associate Head Coach Mike Brown will be Nigeria’s coach; Toronto assistant Sergio Scariolo will lead Spain and Raptors head coach Nick Nurse will lead Canada in qualifying and then into the Olympics should he qualify.
“These are very unique and unusual circumstances,” Silver said. “And I think that just as it is for the Olympic movement, it is also for us. And we will simply have to find a way to merge and combine those two competing considerations. “
The United States, Nigeria, Australia, Spain, Argentina, Iran, France and host Japan have already qualified for the men’s Olympic basketball field. Among the top international teams still waiting to qualify are Greece (which could feature two-time reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo), Serbia (led by Denver All-NBA center Nikola Jokic), Lithuania, Russia and the Czech Republic. .
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