According to ESPN, the NBA Players Association representatives are set to agree to an NBA proposal which would see the new season start on December 22nd.
While the league had been expected to aim for a pre-Christmas Day start to the season, there was uncertainty as to whether or not the league’s players would agree to start the season so soon after the conclusion of the 2019-20 season’s playoffs, which extended until October 11th.
However, it appears that both the league’s owners and it’s players are expected to accept this proposal, which would also include a December 1st start date for preseason camps and three preseason games.
The upcoming NBA season will also feature a reduced 72-game schedule instead of the normal 81-game slate which is played most years. This schedule is expected to be completed around its normal end date with playoffs expected to wrap up in late June.
The league’s players are also expected to have around 18% of their salaries placed into escrow over the next two seasons, meaning that they will potentially not be paid their full salary amounts unless the league and its teams hit certain revenue benchmarks.
The new agreement is expected to be formalized at some point this week.