For a while there, it looked increasingly like the next season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) wouldn’t be taking off until after the new year. Considering that 22 teams, particularly those that went deep in the playoffs, endured a long, arduous stay inside a constricting bubble environment, the thought of extending the break beyond the holidays and close to Martin Luther King Day appeared both practical and symbolically significant. Once league officials and franchise owners took a closer look at the numbers, however, the prospect of moving the start prior to Christmas became not just more palatable, but necessary.
Needless to say, money has become the primary concern, and not without cause. The NBA is fresh off a singular campaign in which it lost, by The Athletic’s estimates, close to $700 million in revenues, and it figures to continue hemorrhaging earnings given the likelihood of empty arenas under the continuing threat of the novel coronavirus. Facing pressure to preserve income streams, no less than commissioner Adam Silver has impressed upon players the need to at least fulfill obligations to broadcast partners in this regard. Which, in a nutshell, an additional month’s worth of games, including the traditional quintuple-header on Christmas Day, is slated to provide.
Initially resistant to, and skeptical of, plans to begin the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, the National Basketball Players Association has, of late, warmed to the prospect. They’ll be formalizing their agreement to the start date in a vote today, but with reluctance, and not merely because of the tight schedule. After the rookie draft, in two weeks will come a truncated training camp. Meanwhile, the free agency window will be small, constricting roster assessments and talent movement. And that’s not even taking into consideration the need for seven new head coaches to put their systems in place.
Put simply, the product that the NBA will be putting out early in its 2020-21 campaign will be far from ideal. Not counting marquee names sitting out due to load management, just about all the players will be working themselves to shape while in competition. They don’t want to do it, but they know they have no choice—not with approximately $500 million on the line, and not when half of the basketball-related income impacts directly on their salaries. The sacrifices remain in any case; they’ll be setting aside around a fifth of their take-home pay for the foreseeable future in order to survive the pandemic and its ill-effects.
There are, to be sure, pluses. Aside from the positive impact on the bottom line, the earlier start to the season will likewise bring about an earlier end. For some players, the development allows them to participate in the 2021 Olympics. For all, it reboots the yearly timetable to the traditionally accepted one. Of course, the assumption is that all will proceed as planned, which is, perhaps, optimistic considering the hurdles the National Football League has needed to overcome week after week. Nonetheless, the show must, and will, go on, and longtime habitués of the sport can’t wait.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
