COVID-19 Crunch: NBPA 'Surprised' By NBA's Tight 2-Season Schedule Plan

DALLAS - Call it the "COVID Crunch.''

The National Basketball Players Association is expressing "surprise'' over the NBA's ambitious plan to open training camps for the 2020-21 season on Nov. 10, less than a month after a projected "if'' Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Oct. 12.

“I was surprised to see it,” said NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In the NBA, the owners and the NBPA have developed a working relationship that allows the players to feel like "partners.'' Therefore, the concept of cramming into a tight window a) eight games of the regular season for the 22 teams invited to Walt Disney World, b) a tournament and best-of-seven series for the entirety of the postseason, and c) another season starting right around the corner ... is a discussion item.

We know the 2019-20 restart will get underway on July 31, following a brief training camp. But then the crunch of dates start flying off the calendar: The NBA Draft Lottery is currently set for Aug. 25. The NBA Draft could take place on Oct. 15. NBA free agency could launch on Oct. 18. And the NBA's 2020-21 season will start in December.

Will it be starting as soon as Dec. 1? That would leave less than two months of rest for the NBA Finals teams. Could the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proposal of starting on Christmas Day be more viable?

All the answers are not in yet. But the dates are starting to come together. And the COVID Crunch is coming.