Good news finally arrived for the world of basketball, which has been on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 11, 2020. Apparently, NBA officials have been in talks of resuming the suspended season at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, where the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is located. There, players will be able to compete in a safe campus-like environment. It was reported that the NBA is targeting a return date of July 31. 

Students at Venice High School seem to be very excited about the potential anticipated return of the NBA. 

“I’m glad the NBA is finally back,” said sophomore Victor Oguekwe. “I hope everything runs smoothly tho.” 

“There will definitely be restrictions and extra safety procedures,” added sophomore Anthony Estrada. “But otherwise I am excited about basketball.” 

There have been ongoing debates regarding how the NBA should salvage the season. Although fans may think that the NBA can simply resume the season by going straight to the playoffs, the situation is way more complicated than it seems. If the league goes straight into the playoffs, it wouldn’t be fair for teams outside the playoff bracket who still have a chance to fight for a playoff spot. Also, the league and players will lose a lot financially if regular-season games get canceled. But health is a concern with all 30 teams being packed into a single site. Although they have all recovered, at least five players have gotten the coronavirus during this long hiatus. 

According to multiple sources from ESPN, the NBA Board of Governors has officially approved NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s proposal for a 22-team restart plan on Thursday, June 4th. In this plan, the 16 teams currently in the playoffs, joined by six other teams, five from the western conference and one from the eastern conference, will each play 8 regular-season games to determine the final seedings for the playoffs, although it’s still unclear what the schedules will look like. This would mean that bottom teams, like the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, won’t be participating. Later, they revealed a new timeline, with the draft lottery taking place on Aug 25th, the NBA draft on Oct 15th, and the 2020-21 season likely taking place on Christmas day. 

There are still many unanswered questions, like what will the playoffs look like with all the travel restrictions? But one thing is for sure, NBA basketball is back and fans won’t have to wait long.