Reports: NBA Board Of Governors Approve Resumption Of 2019-20 Season
Jun 4, 2020, 10:56 AM | Updated: 12:07 pm
(Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)
29 of 30 owners voted in favor of a July 31st return to action at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida
The NBA is back.
According to reports from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, the NBA Board of Governors voted in favor of a plan to resume the 2019-20 season.
Out of 30 teams, 29 voted in favor of the plan while Portland voted against the suggested format.
22 of the league’s 30 teams will be traveling to the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida to resume the regular season and then begin postseason play. Along with the current 16 playoff teams, the league has included franchises that were trailing a playoff spot by six games or less: Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix and Washington.
According to Charania, the league has scheduled the following dates for the resumption of the season:
Each team will play eight regular season games to finish the regular season. Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports reports that teams will play their next eight games on their schedule as planned.
For example, if New Orleans has a team on its schedule that is not one of the 22 teams such as Atlanta, they will move on to the next game on their schedule instead. There are some scheduling conflicts and things to work out matchup-wise, but there is certainty that the league will be able to create a plan that works for each team.
Once the regular season has been completed, if a ninth-seeded team is within four games of the eighth-seed spot, a play-in series will take place to determine the final playoff spot.
In a play-in scenario for the ninth-seed, it will be a single-elimination situation. For the eighth-seed, they will receive the luxury of a double-elimination scenario.
Once the seeding is determined, the NBA postseason is expected to carry into the second week of October, with the reported date for Game 7 of the 2020 NBA Finals being reported as October 12.
Every game will be played in front of no fans as a safety precaution due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On safety protocols, Woj shared the plans that the league has put into place to ensure player safety:
While players and coaches will be allowed to golf or eat at outdoor restaurants, they will also need to maintain social distancing, sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. The NBA is planning to have uniform, daily testing for the coronavirus within the Disney campus environment, sources told ESPN.
If a player tests positive for the virus, the league’s intent would be to remove that player from the team to quarantine and treat individually — and continue to test other team members as they play on, sources said.
Employees at the Disney resort will have to maintain similar protocols. For example, no staff will be allowed into players’ rooms, and hallways will be carefully managed to avoid crowding, sources told Shelburne.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN
The Sacramento Kings (28-36) will be heading to Orlando in July to continue its push for a postseason berth. Sacramento has not made the postseason since the 2005-06 season.
Before the season was put on an indefinite hold due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Kings were only 3.5 games behind the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies with 18 games left to play. Memphis had the most difficult schedule remaining, playing Milwaukee, Boston, Utah, New Orleans (twice), Oklahoma City, Portland and San Antonio.
If Sacramento wants to keep pace and attempt to claim the eighth seed or remain 3.5 games out to qualify for a play-in, they’ll need to win at least five of the eight remaining regular season games.
Coming up for the Kings (subject to change):
- New Orleans (28-36)
- Brooklyn (30-34)
- Dallas (40-27)
- Houston (40-24)
- Orlando (30-35)
- New Orleans (28-36)
- Indiana (39-26)
- San Antonio (27-36)
Scheduling for these matchups still needs to be determined, but the Sacramento Kings will be playing some very meaningful basketball games this summer in Orlando.
The playoff push is on.
