NBA Board of Governors approves 22-team plan to finish the 2019-20 season at Disney World - CBS Sports

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After several months on hiatus, the NBA made significant headway in returning to play. On Thursday's board of governors call with league commissioner Adam Silver, the owners approved a plan to finish out the remainder of the 2019-20 season at Disney World in Orlando, where eventually, a champion will be crowned, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. The vote required three-fourths support to pass, and it received a 29-1 vote from owners on the call, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

The owners now need formal approval from the National Basketball Players Association before the league can move forward. The NBPA is expected to hold a virtual call on Friday to approve the plan that the owners just voted on, according to the New York Times' Marc Stein.

In a statement addressing the plan to resume the season, Silver said:

"The Board's approval of the restart format is a necessary step toward resuming the NBA season. While the COVID-19 pandemic presents formidable challenges, we are hopeful of finishing the season in a safe and responsible manner based on strict protocols now being finalized with public health officials and medical experts.  We also recognize that as we prepare to resume play, our society is reeling from recent tragedies of racial violence and injustice, and we will continue to work closely with our teams and players to use our collective resources and influence to address these issues in very real and concrete ways."

The league is targeting a start date of July 31, where 22 of the 30 NBA teams are expected to participate in Orlando. That will include the 16 current playoff teams as well as the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards. Teams will play an abbreviated version of the regular season that will consist of eight games, as well as a play-in tournament for the eighth seed in both conferences. The tournament will only happen if the No. 9 seed finishes within four games of the No. 8 seed, in which case the No. 9 seed will have to beat the No. 8 seed twice to earn the final playoff spot in their conference. The playoffs will be a best-of-seven series in each round, with the NBA Finals concluding no later than October 12.

While NBA seasons had previously been shortened by labor disputes, never has the league halted operations so abruptly only to pick them back up months down the line. That creates a number of questions leading into the resumed season, including how teams will prepare after so much idle time. The current schedule for the rest of the NBA season is as follows, per Charania:

• June 15: Players currently outside the United States return to home market
• June 21: All players return to home market
• June 22: Testing for COVID-19 begins
• June 30: Training camp begins
• July 7: All teams travel to Orlando
• July 31: Season resumes

While most teams have already reopened their practice facilities to allow players to do individual workouts, the San Antonio Spurs remain the only team in the league who have not. As one of the 22 teams competing in Orlando, though, that will surely happen soon so players can prepare for the remainder of the season.

In addition to voting on the resumption of the season, the call was also used to move the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery to Aug. 25 and NBA Draft to Oct. 15, which would come three days after the potential Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The league also informed the board of governors that free agency would start on October 18.

The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after two members of the Utah Jazz, later revealed to be Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, a number of players and league figures have tested positive, including Kevin Durant, Marcus Smart and New York Knicks owner James Dolan. Those who did test positive have since recovered, and no new positive tests have been made public since. 

When the season was suspended in March, there was a legitimate fear that it wouldn't come back. There are still hurdles left to clear, and the threat of coronavirus still looms over basketball as it does the rest of society. But today's news is the greatest indication yet that the 2019-20 season will have a champion.

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NBA Board of Governors approves 22-team plan to finish the 2019-20 season at Disney World - CBS Sports
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