Multiple media outlets reported Thursday night that the NBA Players Association has approved the league’s plans to start the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, and the NBPA a short time later released a statement confirming the reports.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the regular season will be 72 games. Still to come are finalizations on an amended collective bargaining agreement, which Wojnarowski said would take “into next week.”
He reported that the trade moratorium will be lifted before the league’s draft, which will be held on Nov. 18.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that, as has been rumored, the salary cap for next season will be $109 million.
The NBA wanted the season to start in late December, although numerous outlets reported in recent days that players preferred to begin on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Jan. 18. That, however, would resulted in the loss of many hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.