By Emdad Swapan, Sports Writer/Social Media Correspondent
With everything happening around the world amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, many basketball fans were waiting for some good news on the NBA. On Thursday, June 4th, they got their wish. The NBA held a vote on a season return proposal, which went on to be approved by most of the league’s Board of Governors, in a 29 to 1 vote. The NBA’s return is something that made fans hopeful and optimistic.
The NBA is going to Disney World! The location is Orlando, Florida at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Players and limited family members will reside at Disney World’s popular hotel resort. 22 Teams are invited including 13 Western Conference and 9 Eastern Conference teams. Teams were decided from the NBA Conference Standings as of March 11th, the date the season was canceled. The cancellation occurred after Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert tested positive for Coronavirus. The Washington Wizards slipped right in, being the 9th seed. Teams that are “in the hunt” were invited to get their chance at a playoff spot. All 30 teams weren’t invited because some were at the bottom of the league record-wise and weren’t in contention for the playoffs. Those teams will look forward to the NBA Draft Lottery on August 25th and the NBA Draft on October 15th.
NBA Conference Standings for Day 1 of Return
Each team invited will play a total of 8 games to make it 72 games total on the season. They will follow their regular season schedule by playing games scheduled from March 11th or 12th to until they reach 8 total games. They will skip the games in which the other team wasn’t invited. After the 8 games there will be a play-in Tournament. The play-in tournament will include the No. 8 and No. 9 teams in a conference, if the ninth seed finishes the regular season within four games of the eighth.
In that case, the No. 9 seed would need to beat the No. 8 seed twice to earn the playoff berth, while the No. 8 would need one win from the two potential games. After seeding is decided, there will be the NBA playoffs with the Quarter- final, Semi-Final, Conference Final and the NBA Finals.The NBA Finals format is expected to include games every other day.
Additional Details:
The regular season will extend 16 days, with five to six games per day.
There will be four hours between games on each individual court to accommodate overtimes, cleanings and warm-ups. The league will be using three courts in the complex for games.
In the eight-game regular-season format, each team is expected to play one back-to-back.
The NBA is going to be aggressive in moving up scheduled playoff games if a series ends early. Time is very important because the NFL season is expected to start around then. Game timing is something to keep an eye on especially on Mondays from September through October because of ESPN’s Monday Night Football. ESPN and ABC are not planning on conflicting with their networks NFL games but it could happen if such circumstances take place. We will find out if the NBA will hold games on that day at all to avoid the problem.
Final details are still being worked out and can be modified but as of now, the NBA is back!
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