Adam Silver: January is Earliest Start Date for 2021 NBA Season
Once the NBA Playoffs wrap up here in about a month or so, fans will have to play the waiting game to see their favorite team retake the floor in the upcoming 2020-2021 season. Unfortunately, the start date remains to be determined, although we now know that we'll have to wait until next year.
Earlier this afternoon, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on CNN to talk about what comes next for the league after the bubble experiment in Orlando.
Silver stated that his "best guess" is that the 2021 season will begin in January at the earliest, adding that the goal is to be able to play in front of fans. Silver also mentioned that the league is aiming for a standard season, meaning 82 games and a typical postseason.
Time will tell if everything the league is planning will become a reality, but it sounds like it will be challenging to pull all of it off — especially playing in front of fans. Perhaps stadiums could fill at lesser capacities. But given the situation surrounding the coronavirus, that'll be easier said than done.
The prospect of playing a full 82-game season along with a standard playoff in the allotted timeframe seems like a challenge as well. Trying to cram it into a shorter period would mean less rest between games, for one thing, and a potential increase in injuries as well.
A condensed season — perhaps around 55 games or so — sounds much more reasonable.
It's also worth noting that while the goal is to begin in January, that may not end up being the case. According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said he had heard February and March being potential start dates.
It's impossible to nail down an exact date at this point, but as the season continues to wind down, more information will become available.
