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The National Basketball Players Association is close to a deal that would begin the 2020-21 National Basktetball Association (NBA) season on Dec. 22 with a shortened schedule of 72 games per team, according to ESPN.
Athletic previously reported the possibility of a 72-game season that would begin just before Christmas. According to ESPN, the NBA’s board of governors and the NBPA were holding separate meetings on the issue Thursday with the expectation that the start date would be approved.
The next regular season, if agreed, would be 10 games short of the typical NBA regular season schedule.
The players association is expected to vote among the team’s player representatives sometime on Thursday, according to the ESPN report. It was expected to agree on a salary guarantee of close to 18% during the next two years.
The NBA draft is scheduled for November 18, with training camps likely to open on December 1.
The projected start date would leave the possibility of the regular season ending before the start of the 2021 Summer Olympics, which will begin on July 23 in Tokyo.
There is no indication when or if the 2020-21 season games will be played in front of fans. The NBA lost $ 800 million in ticket sales during the just-concluded season due to the ongoing pandemic, ESPN reported Oct. 28.
The league also reportedly lost $ 400 million in sponsorship and merchandise plus $ 200 million in “net negative impact” from China due to the fallout from then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who voiced his support for the Hong Kong protesters. against the government of Beijing.
If agreed, the December 22 start date would come out just seven weeks before the new season opens. The deal that was decided would void the league’s original promise to give players eight weeks’ notice before the start of the season.
The NBA became the first professional league to suspend play amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and it did so on March 11. The league entered a bubble in late July at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando to end an abbreviated regular season.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the title during the most peculiar of seasons, defeating the Miami Heat in a six-game NBA final played alone in front of the players’ families and close friends.
The Lakers earned their decisive 106-93 win over the Heat on October 11, just 11 days shy of a full year since they began their regular season schedule with a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. – Reuters
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