Los Angeles (AFP)
The NBA will subject franchise owners to a vote on Thursday on its recovery plan, which involves 22 out of 30 teams scheduled to play 8 regular season games, with playoffs knockouts for 8th place, several media announced on Wednesday.
The date of return to competition, from July 31 to October 12 at the latest, is targeted by the commissioner of the league Adam Silver. The place too: at Disney World in Florida, in quarantine conditions and for matches behind closed doors.
Three-quarters of the owners now need to approve the plan in a mid-day vote Thursday. According to ESPN, it is almost acquired: a very large majority of them intend to vote for it.
After consulting players through the union (NBPA), general managers and club bosses for a long time, Silver decided on a format in particular on the four submitted initially to resume the season on forced break since March 11 and positive coronavirus test from French Rudy Gobert (Utah).
First of all, it concerns 22 out of 30 teams, namely the first eight of each conference on the evening of March 11, i.e. 16 teams, and six others being six wins or less from 8th place in each conference. Which happen to be New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio to the west, and Washington to the east.
The 22 entrants would first play eight regular season games each. After which, the classification will give a first photograph of the play-offs, with the first seven of each conference being directly qualified.
The 8th sesame would, in the East as in the West, possibly be the subject of a barrage tour.
Two scenarios are possible: if the 9th is more than 4 games behind the 8th, the latter is officially qualified for the play-offs. If the 9th is 4 matches or less behind the 8th, the two face off in the play-off. The 8th must win once to qualify, the 9th must win 2 times.
This plan, which would de facto exclude the eight worst-ranked clubs in the championship, all conferences combined, would mark the end of the season for Charlotte, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland, Minnesota and Golden State.
© 2020 AFP