The time is no longer conditional, supputations and doubts. Various sources, including the very well informed Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski, unveil this Wednesday the recovery plan for the NBA season which will be submitted this Thursday to the vote of the "Board of Governors", the meeting of bosses of 30 franchises . A plan that is likely to be adopted. And for good reason: Charania, of The Athletic and Stadium , ensures that the proposals were established after multiple exchanges between the league and the different players in recent weeks.
Sources: NBA commissioner Adam Silver is planning to propose a 22-team format to resume the 2019-20 season
Story on @TheAthleticNBA with full details of the play-in tournament for 8th seed: https://t.co/d7X3X6uCNI
It is the entire plan that will be voted on, and not each of the resolutions individually. "Woj" has no more doubts about the outcome of the poll: "The NBA is back," said the ESPN journalist . Which recalls a number of information that had already filtered, namely that the plan put in place by Adam Silver provides that this end of the season will take place from July 31 (date of resumption) to October 12 (date of a possible match 7 of the Finals), in a bubble in Orlando, on the Disney World website. And more specifically at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
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A dam between the 8th and the 9th
For the rest, Adam Silver and the NBA plan to invite 22 teams to Florida, the 16 who were in a position to make the play-offs (the ranking here) at the time of the season interruption, on March 11 after the announcement of the first case of coronavirus within the league, the French Rudy Gobert, but also Portland, New Orleans, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio (Western Conference) and Washington (East).
ESPN story on the NBA's plan for a return: https://t.co/z90vvFqob6
- Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 3, 2020All clubs will play eight regular season games. At the end of these meetings, the eighth of each Conference will automatically qualify for the "post-season" ... if he is four or more games ahead of the ninth. Otherwise, these two teams would have to fight. The eighth would have only one victory to win to validate his place, while the ninth would have to win twice to invite himself to the party.
All matches behind closed doors
Note that the 22 clubs affected by this recovery will begin their training in their facilities, during July. They will finish this phase on the Orlando side, before attacking the matches on July 31, behind closed doors, of course. The NBA will also put in place a strict health protocol in order to limit interactions between each other, even if players and staff members can for example play golf or eat out, as reported by ESPN . Disney employees will also have to follow a number of rules.
It will, for example, be impossible for the latter to enter the players' rooms. Finally, it should be noted that the AP press agency specifies that “certain elements of this stimulus plan can still be modified, while points are still under negotiation, such as the percentage of wages lost by players due to the 'cancellation of certain meetings of the season'. In the meantime, and while the French Championship and the Euroleague have drawn the curtain, basketball fans will soon be able to quench their thirst for play with the NBA.
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