Things have begun to look up in recent weeks for professional sports as states across the country have begun to slowly reopen and with it the possibility of a return to live game action. For the NBA, a plan is finally in place to bring back the 2019-20 regular season.
After a three-month hiatus, basketball appears set to resume activities in Orlando at Walt Disney World. The resort and theme park will serve as the NBA’s bubble location and will be home to players and team personnel for the remainder of the season and playoffs.
Instead of a full 30-team restart, the NBA and NBPA agreed to limit the number of participants and instead implement a 22-team format where they will play eight regular season games with the addition of a play-in tournament in the event conditions to trigger it are met.
From there, the 2020 NBA Playoffs will resume like normal, with 16 teams placed in their normal conference brackets. While it may be exciting for the league and its fans to see games again, some players appear to be less than thrilled.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, that faction is upset over a full vote not being conducted:
There is a significant number of NBA players who are disappointed that everyone wasn’t given the opportunity to vote on whether to restart the 2019-20 season, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The complaint, privately expressed by multiple players, is that every player’s voice wasn’t heard for this critical and potentially life-changing vote, sources said.
LeBron James — along with several other prominent All-Stars — were on a conference call and banded together in support of making every effort to resume the season. However, in terms of approving the 22-team plan, only team union representatives participated.
But even with that, every indication was the board of governors and NBPA both put their faith in commissioner Adam Silver and would therefore sign off on the plan he presented.
It is a delicate balance the NBA is trying to tiptoe as canceling the season outright has financial ramifications that could be felt for years to come on both sides. Basketball revenue is split between the league and its players and the loss of games to the point will undoubtedly make an impact come the following year.
As things stand, the restart is still scheduled to happen but it will be interesting to see who actually reports.