When the NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2021-22, it might do so by giving its players — and fans — a shorter regular season as part of a restructured calendar.
According to an ESPN report Wednesday, the league has begun exploring options that include a possible midseason tournament, a postseason play-in tournament and an abbreviated regular-season schedule.
ESPN reported that an advisory committee with about a dozen top team executives from both basketball and business operations took part in a June 17 conference call to discuss with the league office possible alternatives to the traditional NBA schedule for the 2021-22 season.
The “wide-ranging brainstorming session” was very exploratory, according to ESPN. Proposed reforms would be adopted as a pilot program.
A new midseason cup-style tournament would likely require a shorter regular-season schedule, which could greatly affect team revenue for franchises committed to local broadcast partners that also rely on revenue from game attendance.