It is unknown when NBA action will return, but the league is not throwing in the towel on the 2019-20 season. Not yet, anyway.
“I think we have to be flexible,” NBA Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts said on The Zach Gelb Show. “Clearly we’ve already gone beyond the calendar that would have dictated our regular season. Our regular season would have ended [around April 16] or a couple of days ago, so we know that if we resume, we’re talking about some expansion of the calendar. The question is how flexible [can the] calendar be? It appears it can be fairly flexible. If we can restart the games in late-summer and complete this whole thing [by] late-summer [or] early fall, I think it’s doable. It depends, of course, upon conditions that allow for it to be safe.”
The NBA playoffs were originally scheduled to begin April 18. Whenever the league does return, games will be fan-less for the “foreseeable future.”
“Certainly not this summer,” Roberts said of fans at games. “There has to be some flexibility with respect to the start of next season. I think everyone is willing to talk about it, but it’s so hard not to speculate. All I can say is that everyone appears to be on the same page in [terms of being] flexible. I’m optimistic. Call me crazy, but I am.”
The NBA suspended its season with roughly 20 percent of the regular season remaining. If the league resumes the 2019-20 season, will it go straight to the playoffs?
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Roberts said. “The good news is there’s flexibility. Even if we can’t do the entire regular season, if we have to do just a few games, that’s an option. If we had to tinker with the playoffs . . . there are no options off the table. It’s really just a question of when it becomes safe, and at that point, we can begin to be creative in terms of how much, if any, of the regular season, how much, if any, of the playoffs would have to be adjusted. But I wouldn’t go as far as saying there’s no way we can resume the regular season. We may get there, but I don’t believe we’re there yet.”