The PROVISIONAL start date for the 2020–21 season for the 2020–21 season is already uncertain.
Speaking to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols before the lottery draw, Commissioner Adam Silver said the projected date “seemed a little early.” Admission comes just hours after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski announced that players were going to push the company loose in mid-October.
By Wojnarowski:
“Due to the league’s projected revenue uncertainty for the upcoming season, a postponement of the start of flexible agency on October 18 would give the NBA and NBPA the ability to better formulate the parameters of the 2020-2021 salary cap and luxury tax thresholds.
“The hope is that the longer you wait for the league for each and every resolution and projection, the latest data on the coronavirus pandemic will provide a greater understanding of the choice of gambling in 2020-21 with enthusiasts in the arenas, which is important for the monetary fitness of the league. Commissioner Adam Silver told players at a convention in May that game night revenues accounted for 40% of NBA revenue.”
Silver has not proposed any other date for the 2020-2021 season forecast, nor has it given a timeline of when such a resolution may be taken. Deciding when to end the NBA recess from mid-March to July, Silver said he would review COVID-19’s knowledge that opposed the dates.
If there’s anything else to get so many enthusiasts into the arena next season, that same logic can be applied. A date to stay in the brain as the NBA approaches its next season is December 25.
Christmas has long been the unofficial opening date of the league with a full list of games with famous NBA groups for a national audience. The day may serve the diagnosis of the season, but those conversations seem unwelcome right now. For now, all Silver was willing to say is that December 1 is no longer imaginable to start the next season.