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The NBA calendar will likely never be the same again after the COVID-19 suspension which took place this season.
With that said, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association Michele Roberts is reportedly preparing players for next season (2020-2021) to start between late January and early March of 2021, per Henry Abbott of True Hoop.
TrueHoop sources in the bubble: NBPA head Michele Roberts met with players in groups on Wednesday in Orlando. Everyone wore masks. Key takeaways:
— Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop) August 14, 2020
1) She expects the current collective bargaining agreement is toast.
2) She is optimistic about negotiating a new one.
3) Next season will most likely begin some time between late January and early March (the later dates would affect the Olympics, however).— Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop) August 14, 2020
The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo was supposed to take place this summer, but it got delayed until 2021 due to COVID-19.
The NBA deserves immense credit for pulling off the bubble games at Walt Disney World. There have been zero positive COVID-19 tests since the games started and the atmosphere hasn't been that bad despite the lack of fans.
It appears the 2020-21 season may have to take place in a bubble as well since it doesn't look like COVID-19 is going away anytime soon. In fact, Roberts has been on record saying she's predicting next season will be in a bubble format.
“If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently,” Roberts told ESPN about the future of the NBA back in July.
“If tomorrow looks like today, and today we all acknowledge — and this is not Michele talking, this is the league, together with the PA and our respective experts saying, ‘This is the way to do it’ — then that’s going to have to be the way to do it.”
The fact that a 2020 champion will be crowned is impressive considering most people thought the season was over in March after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert contracted COVID-19.
