NBA, NBPA announce comprehensive plan for July 30 restart
New York [US], June 26 (ANI): The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) on Friday announced that they have finalized a "comprehensive plan" for a July 30 restart to the 2019-20 season.
The association said that the comprehensive plan includes stringent health and safety protocols, a single-site campus at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the goal of taking collective action to combat systemic racism and promote social justice.
"In addition, the NBA and Disney have reached an agreement that makes the Arena, the Field House and Visa Athletic Center at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex the venues for all games for the remainder of the season, which will resume with 22 teams returning to play and with no fans in attendance," the statement read.
The statement further read, "As announced on Wednesday, the NBA and the NBPA have agreed in principle that the goal of the season restart will be to find tangible and sustainable ways to address racial inequality across the country."
"We have worked together with the Players Association to establish a restart plan that prioritizes health and safety, preserves competitive fairness and provides a platform to address social justice issues," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a statement.
"We are grateful to our longtime collaborator Disney for its role in playing host and making this return to play possible, and we also thank the public health officials and infectious disease specialists who helped guide the creation of comprehensive medical protocols and protections," he added.
NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts said it is "very exciting to officially announce the restart of the 2019-2020 season".
Under the competitive format for the restart, the 22 participating teams will be the eight teams in each conference with the highest current winning percentages and the six teams that are currently within six games of the eighth seed in either conference.
The restart will begin with each participating team playing eight "seeding games," as selected from its remaining regular-season matchups.
At the conclusion of the seeding games, the seven teams in each conference with the highest combined winning percentages across regular-season games and seeding games will be the first through seventh seeds for the NBA Playoffs for that conference.
If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage (regular-season games and seeding games) in a conference is more than four games ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference, then the team with the eighth-best winning percentage would be the eighth playoff seed in that conference.
If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage in a conference (Team 8) is four games or fewer ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference (Team 9), then those two teams would compete in a play-in tournament to determine the eighth playoff seed in the conference. The play-in tournament will be double elimination for Team 8 and single elimination for Team 9.
The NBA's standard playoff tiebreaker procedures will be used to break any ties on the basis of the winning percentage. Once the 16-team playoff field is set, the NBA Playoffs will proceed in a traditional conference-based format with four rounds and best-of-seven series in each round. The 2020 NBA Finals will end no later than October 13.
Earlier in the day, NBA, in a Twitter post, said that it conducted tests for 302 players on June 23 out of which 16 returned positive for coronavirus. (ANI)
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