NBA Players, Owners At A Stalemate Over Season’s Start Date

The NBA is in a tricky situation with its start date for the 2020-2021 NBA season. The owners have proposed that the season start on Dec. 22. This would allow the revenue to come in for holiday basketball. It would also mean the season would end in time for the Summer Olympics, which would open the door for star players to represent their countries.

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The NBA players are not on board. Citing not enough offseason time, the players response to this plan has been negative. National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts commented on the players viewpoint.

“Given all that has to be resolved between now and a Dec. 22 date, factoring that there will be financial risks by a later start date, it defies common sense that it can all be done in time,” Roberts told The Athletic. “Our players deserve the right to have some runway so that they can plan for a start that soon. The overwhelming response from the players that I have received to this proposal has been negative.”

A faction of players, including some superstars, is pushing for the league to wait until Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 18 to start the season, according to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. They would prefer free agency to begin on Dec. 1, as opposed to the Owners plan of Nov. 20.

After talks have continued to stall, the NBA has threatened the NBA Players Association with a shortened season.

NBA players may only be offered a 50-game season, I'm told, if the union insists on a mid-January start rather than the Dec. 22 proposal, because the league's television partners do not want the 2020-21 season to stray past mid-July … or clash with the Tokyo Olympics

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 30, 2020

A 50-game season would reduce player salaries significantly in 2020-21, since NBA pay adheres to a regular-season schedule

The NBA's 72-game model calls for teams to play roughly 14 games a month through May, followed by the playoffs through mid-July — before the Olympics begin

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 30, 2020

Can the NBA please just figure it out? Sports fans have had enough of these leagues struggling to make the financials work. Negotiations almost costed fans the chance to have an MLB season at all. 2020 has sucked enough. Please just let us have sports.

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