The NBA will attempt to relaunch its suspended season with 22 teams vying for the championship after the league’s board of governors voted to approve Commissioner Adam Silver’s plan during a Thursday conference call.
Twenty-two teams will continue the season in Orlando, Fla., by finishing the regular season with eight games each before heading into the playoffs. If the ninth-place team is within four games of the eighth-place team in each conference, they’ll enter a wild-card playoff, with the lower-seeded team needing to win two games to advance.
The top eight teams in each conference will be joined by New Orleans, Portland, San Antonio, Sacramento, Phoenix and Washington.
Teams will be seeded by conference, and each playoff series will be best-of-seven games.
The regular season is scheduled to resume July 31, with the NBA Finals potentially stretching to Oct. 10.
The plan still needs approval from the players’ union. The league also needs to finalize details and sign a contract with Disney to host the rest of the 2019-20 season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Details about the league’s medical plans are scarce. The NBA will reportedly need at least 15,000 tests for the coronavirus, a way to quickly and safely perform and process the tests, and a plan for how to handle positive tests. Tests are expected to be daily.
The league also has to implement policies for high-risk players and coaches.
Still, Thursday’s vote is the most significant step towards a resumption of basketball since the season was suspended on March 11.
NHL playoff details
The NHL announced Thurday that every playoff series will be a best-of-seven format after the initial qualifying round, and teams will be re-seeded throughout if the league is able to return with its 24-team plan later this summer.
Health and safety protocols are still being assessed for what the league has said could be 24 teams playing each other in two hub cities.
The NHL has not announced the start of voluntary workouts or a firm timeline for training camps and the resumption of games. But the final details of the format answered one question: Players preferred re-seeding throughout a 24-team playoff as a means of fairness, though the league likes the brackets that have been in place since 2014.
The Associated Press
