The NBA — with its 2019-20 season on hiatus since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic — will reportedly vote on a proposal with a target date set for the absolute last day of the season and playoffs.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, a 22-team format to resume the season and enter the playoffs has been submitted for approval by the NBA’s Board of Governors. The league would resume on July 31 and, should it necessitate one, a Game 7 of the 2020 NBA Finals would occur on Oct. 12, 2020, officially ending the suspended season.
The NBA's Board of Governors has a Thursday meeting set for a vote on a finalized plan to restart the season, per sources. The league is still working through those details with the NBPA. https://t.co/bwZ74S3ldR
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2020
The 22 teams involved in the re-started NBA season would likely mean entering the playoffs with a different first round, including multiple teams outside of the routine eight respective Western and Eastern Conference teams automatically earning a postseason berth. Six more teams would compete for playoff draws, should the Board of Governors approve the current proposal.
The NBA has preferred one location to minimize any concern of travel and catching coronavirus, the pandemic-level public health crisis that has wrecked the United States for the past three months and effectively shut down businesses along with professional and amateur sports.
By limiting the number of teams resuming the 2019-20 season, too, the NBA will prevent how many people can be risked infecting if there is a COVID-19 outbreak. Minnesota Timberwolves star center Karl-Anthony Towns, for instance, saw his mother Jacqueline Cruz pass away due to coronavirus.
Families of players, coaches, and team staff will have to all centralize at likely Walt Disney World in Orlando as the NBA presses on and looks to resume the season by the end of next month.
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