Just over two months after the completion of a torrid 2019-20 season, the NBA is set to return for a new session in coming days.
In fact, the preseason is already here as several exciting friendly match-ups have served at our screens since the turn of this weekend.
The preseason will run through till next weekend before the season proper takes centre stage on December 22.
While it will come quite early for players from clubs that participated in the NBA playoffs, and especially the finals which ended on October 11, some others – from eight teams that did not make the NBA Bubbles – will be to yearning to finally return to league action for the first time since March.
Unlike as in the playoffs and finals which were held in an isolation zone at Walt Disney World in Florida to protect the players from COVID-19 infection, this 2020-21 season will see all teams, except Toronto Raptors, return to their home grounds.
The Raptors are planning to rather play their home games at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida due to the COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions imposed in Canada.
The games will however yet be held behind closed doors as there is bound to be a lot more attention paid to player testing even as the coronavirus crisis still lingers in the United States.
Nonetheless, the players are raring to tip off the regular season later this month to the delight of fans who fancy basketball betting.
In an interview with ESPN, Denver Nuggets’ center Nikola Jokic admitted that the offseason came quite short for him.
“The whole (offseason process), everything was shortened. I was in the weight room a little bit less (than a normal offseason). Just to figure, just to put everything together, I was like, I need to cut one week of doing nothing and then one week of just doing weight room. It was OK to be honest. I kind of like it because the training camp is not going to be that long.”
This season, each team will play 72 regular-season games, which is 10 games fewer than in a typical 82-game NBA season.
But we might be see superstar LeBron James in action in much lesser games than as in previous seasons, as he has hinted he will take up a reduced role.
“I was like, ‘Wow.’ And I said, ‘Oh, s—‘,” said the LA Lakers Power Forward in response when quizzed on how real reacted to the news of NBA season start date.
“Just being completely honest, I wasn’t expecting that because early conversations were going on and I was hearing that there would be kind of a mid-January start and training camp would kind of start after Christmas. We would have an opportunity to spend Christmas with our families. So I had a break planned, a vacation with my family for us to go somewhere, which I haven’t been able to do, obviously, since I’ve been in the league. So I had to switch up a lot of things once I heard the December 22nd start.”
As regards the challenges that players have and would face in returning to action amid the coronavirus crisis, LeBron said: “We listen to the experts and what’s going on with the climate as far as COVID, and keep your family in a mask when we leave the house or whatever the case may be.
“And be cautious where we travel to, be cautious who we are around. Right now you just try to do everything that you can to try to protect your family. And hopefully you can stay safe and stay healthy. I think that’s the most important thing, the main thing.”
