NBA confirms plans for season to resume at Disney World on July 31

The season was brought to a halt on March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Getty Images
Tony Mogan4 June 2020

The NBA season has been given a ‘tentative’ restart date of July 31 with all remaining matches to be staged at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

The season was brought to a halt on March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NBA Board of Governors released a statement on Thursday following a meeting in New York, with the resort to be used as a single site to house all 22 teams, including all practice sessions and matches.

Teams currently in the eight play-off places in both the Eastern and Western Conferences will return alongside the six sides which are six games or fewer from the eighth-seeded franchise.

"The Board's approval of the restart format is a necessary step toward resuming the NBA season," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.

"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 finalised with public health officials and medical experts.

"We also recognise 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."

Additional reporting from Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT