Barring any more glitches and unforeseen events, it sure looked like that the NBA is resuming on July 30 as the timeline for the season restart has been shared publicly. The league will resume the games by the end of the month and aims to wrap things up in October, and a champion will be known by the 13th of the same month at the latest.
As already announced, only 22 teams will be part of the season restart and all competitors will be in a centralized location called bubble city. That will be in Orlando, Florida, and where the play will be governed by restrictions and safety protocols to ensure that players and personnel will be free of the coronavirus.
Citing the information shared by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, NBC Sports said the training camp will be held starting on July 9 and yes, the location will be in the so-called Orlando Bubble. That should mean qualified teams are expected in the city before the start date.
Also, the NBA is making sure that those left out of the game resumption will remain fit so talks are now underway between league officials and the NBPA to come up with an offseason program that will see players of the eliminated teams doing workouts and scrimmages.
As for the actual games, the playoffs will be played starting on August 17 and per Shams Charania of The Athletic, the conference semis and finals games will be occupying much of September.
By the end of September, the NBA Finals will begin and the games, as indicated earlier, will be played behind closed doors. Fans, however, will still catch the action live on television.
Meanwhile, it would seem that while the basketball community as a whole welcomes the NBA season restart, many players have serious concerns about returning to the hardcourt. The fear of getting infected by COVID-19 is a valid issue as far as the NBPA is concerned but the union is looking to address as well the prevailing racial tension in the United States.
According to Lakers Nation, NBPA vice-president Kyrie Irving has organized a Zoom conference with all members to discuss the problems that trouble them.
Following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, riots and violence erupted across America with protesters demanding the end of racial injustices. Irving and his fellow NBA stars are looking to discuss the wisdom of returning to play amid the unrest that has been gripping the nation.
The report said players have voiced out the sentiment that when the league had decided to resume playing the games, many of them were not heard. And playing so that the NBA can survive as a business is seen by many in the players' union as just plain bad optics.
