The NBA’s board of governors discussed the delaying of the mid-October NBA draft and start of free agency on a call with commissioner Adam Silver on Friday, sources told ESPN.
The possibility of delaying those two events — an idea with growing support within the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association — fits into a potential timeline that would have the NBA’s original Dec. 1 start date for 2020-2021 pushed back.
The board of governors call on Friday — comprised largely of league owners — also included a discussion on possible dates to start the next NBA season beyond the current tentative date of Dec. 1. Silver told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Thursday that the Dec. 1 date “is feeling a little bit early to me.”
ESPN reported on Thursday that NBPA executive director Michele Roberts and union officials have been preparing players for the likelihood that free agency will be pushed back as many as several weeks from its current Oct. 18 date — along with the Dec. 1 start to the season.
The NBA and NBPA must collectively bargain these changes, but support on both sides to delay next season’s NBA calendar is mutually beneficial as the goal of getting fans into arenas for games next season is at the core of the league’s revenue base.
“Our No. 1 goal is to get fans back into arenas,” Silver told ESPN during the draft lottery show on Thursday. “… if it’s pushed back and it increases the likelihood of fans in arenas…that’s what we’d be targeting.”
Because of the uncertainty about next season’s projected league revenues, the delay on the Oct. 18 start of free agency would give the NBA and NBPA a better ability to formulate the parameters of 2020-2021 salary cap and luxury tax thresholds.
The longer the league waits on every decision and projection, the hope is that the latest information on the coronavirus pandemic can offer a better understanding on whether there’s a possibility of playing games in 2020-2021 with fans in arenas — which Silver has said generates about 40 percent of the league’s revenue.
Source : ESPN
