“Nine Months is Too Long”: Excluded NBA Teams Unhappy with the Enormous Off Season

On Thursday, Adam Silver announced the NBA’s Board of Governors plans to restart the season. 22 teams will be traveling to Orlando as the season resumes on 31st July. The 22 teams will play eight regular-season games before the playoffs begin. But this means that the other eight teams will be without competitive basketball for over eight months as the new season will only begin on 1st December.

Thunder owner Clay Bennett has been championing for the small-markets teams who are going to miss the NBA return. He said that if all 30 teams do not make it, the nine months gap would affect player development, sponsorships, and ticket sales too. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that “several teams left out of Orlando resumption have proposed ideas to NBA for regional mini-summer leagues, training camps.”

Teams left out of the NBA return upset over exclusion

Hawks owner Tony Ressler was vocal about this. “Nine months is too long without organized basketball,” he told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “We just can’t risk that. I think the league has heard that loud and clear. We are pushing to remain competitive. That’s what our players want. We were desperate to have something that helps us to stay competitive.”

Almost all of the eight teams have voiced out the need to have something scheduled for them in August. Among the proposed ideas are workouts in July, regional camps in August along with a few televised games, and finally organized team activities (OTAs) for September. Another interesting idea could be a playing tournament for the lottery teams to determine the #1 pick.

However, not only does the Board of Governors need to approve this but also the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). A three-fourths majority of all 30 teams is required for any plan to be approved. Despite the excluded teams like Hawks, Bulls and Cavs voicing their concerns, there is still a lot of approval required to see them in action.