With the rest of the 2019-2020 NBA season still indefinitely postponed, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s board of governors are reportedly considering pushing back the start of next season to December.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the league’s planning for next season is “independent of whether the 2019-2020 season is resumed and completed.”
The board has also voted to postpone the 2020 draft lottery and draft combine. Many believe the NBA draft, scheduled on June 25, will be cancelled as well.
In March, Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin proposed in a presentation at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference the idea of having a December start to the NBA season rather than the usual October start, to avoid competition with the football season and potentially increase viewership.
The league announced the indefinite postponement of its season on March 11 after Utah Jazz all-star Rudy Gobert tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The NBA is said to have considered playing games without fans in a neutral, secluded site to finish the 2019-2020 season.
There were reports the league might cancel the season entirely, but Lakers forward LeBron James said on Twitter “nobody should be cancelling anything.”
Saw some reports about execs and agents wanting to cancel season??? That’s absolutely not true. Nobody I know saying anything like that. As soon as it’s safe we would like to finish our season. I’m ready and our team is ready. Nobody should be canceling anything. ????
— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 30, 2020
The playoffs were supposed to start last April 18. John Ezekiel J. Hirro