NBA set to return in late July

According to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, the National Basketball Association is set to return sometime in late July. The 2019-20 NBA regular season was postponed on March 11 because of coronavirus.

Under the new plan to return that has been put forth by the NBA Board of Governors, 22 of the 30 teams in the NBA will return to action at the Disney campus in Walt Disney World close to Orlando, Florida. Each team will play eight more regular season games before the top seven teams in each conference make the postseason. Why not the top eight teams like previous years?

Well, this season if the eighth-place team leads the ninth-place team in each conference by four games or fewer, then a play-in game could be played. If the eighth-place team leads the ninth-place team in each conference by more than four games, then the eighth-place team automatically will qualify for the postseason.

At this time, 13 teams have been selected from the Western Conference and nine teams from the Eastern Conference. The teams selected for the resumption of the season were all the teams that were within six games of a playoff spot.

However, before basketball fans get all excited, you have to realize two major things. The first, is that the players have to agree to the proposal. That seems like a formality after a players’ association meeting on Friday. The second, could be more difficult. The coronavirus statistics may have to drop in the state of Florida before the NBA resumes for just over two months. Currently, there are 60, 183 cases, and 2610 deaths.

We all know Florida Governor Rob DeSantis wants the NBA in his state, but unless the people of Florida take social distancing more seriously, then we could see the numbers in Florida continue to skyrocket. Then, Adam Silver could be left without a choice, and may just have to cancel the remainder of the season or move the NBA season entirely to Anchorage!