There's been a lot of momentum generated towards a pre-Christmas start to the season for the NBA, with which has often been with by most of the NBPA. For certain teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, they'd be returning to on-court action a little over two months after the conclusion of the 2019-20 season.
Danny Green had previously stated how players such as LeBron James shouldn't be expected to play on opening night, given such the quick turnaround.
Green has once again offered his sentiments towards the unfavored December start to the season versus restarting in January.
“We’ll all show up for work. I’m not speaking on or for anybody,” said Green, according to SB Nation's Silver Screen & Roll. “I was just joking saying certain guys — not just LeBron, we have a lot of vets on our team — and we prefer not to start Dec. 22.”
The NBPA and the Board of Governors had recently reached an impasse in talks on the return of the NBA next season. For most players, the overall belief was that the 2020-21 season shouldn't commence until January, preferably on MLK Day. Green also explained that his views weren't necessarily just his own, but that of the Lakers as well.
“… We have a lot of guys with eight-plus years, 10-plus years (of experience) on our team. To do a long season like we had, regardless of how long we had in between, we still finished at a date and to start up a month-and-a-half later, or two months later, is tough. But we will show up for work, so don’t take it out of context, and I’ll speak no more on it, but we hope that we get a little more time to relax and rest and give our bodies a chance to recover before we start back up again.”
While Green did suggest that his statements on James shouldn't be taken seriously, it should be taken into careful consideration by the league office as to how stars will respond to such a short turnaround. The “load management” reason next to a DNP will likely be heavily employed with a December start date.
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