Los Angeles (AFP)
NBA boss Adam Silver told franchise owners on Friday that he was targeting a resumption of the season on July 31, several media reports, also relaying a poll where general managers are pleading for replay in the playoffs.
If the North American basketball league seems to have set its sights on the unique site of Disney World in Florida to resume play in camera, remains to know the date.
The window at the end of July, often mentioned by the press, therefore seems to be confirmed.
"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the league office have informed the board of directors (which includes franchise owners) that July 31 is the target date for the resumption of the season," Chams tweeted. Charania, from The Athletic, citing anonymous sources in the league.
No decision was made during the meeting, but according to ESPN "most" of club bosses expect Silver to announce next week their plan to resume the season suspended from March 11 and positive coronavirus test from French Rudy Gobert (Utah).
Earlier Friday, The Athletic and ESPN also released the results of a survey conducted by the NBA in recent days, with general managers of 30 franchises, for the terms of resumption of the championship.
Where it appears that a small majority (53%, 16 out of 30) of them would like the championship to resume from the play-offs, with 16 qualifiers determined by the classification on the evening of March 11.
This proposal won more votes than the other three combined, namely to finish the regular season and organize a qualifying round for the play-offs (27%); resume directly through the play-offs, with a qualifying round or a group phase on the model of a soccer world cup (17%); finish the regular season, then go straight into play-offs (3%).
If general managers prefer to keep the traditional format of play-offs, 47% of them (14 out of 30) say they are in favor of determining the order of heads of series independently of conferences, according to the general classification from 1 to 16 So far eight seeders have been nominated in each conference according to the classification from 1st to 8th place.
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