The NBA’s push to restart the 2019-20 season appears to be met with little pushback by players.
With the current campaign on pause amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the league recently has been ramping up the laying of groundwork to start things back up. The idea gaining the most steam would be putting the teams at a central location, with Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., being confirmed as a frontrunner, and playing out the rest of the season, with games beginning as soon as July.
The league’s board of governors is expected to have a call this Friday, with the expectation being a framework to resume play gets laid out by June 1. The head of the league’s players’ association shared that there is an “overwhelming” desire to return to play.
“It’s time. It’s time,” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “It’s been two and a half months of, ‘What if?’ My players need some level of certainty. I think everybody does. …
“Let’s just get it out there because our guys need to know,” Roberts later noted. “Certainty will be good. But the players really want to play.”
Former NBA star and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley declared the NBA season “100 percent” is coming back. So between that, the logistical work the league is putting in and the desire of the players to return, things are heading in a promising direction.
