The NBA informed teams on Wednesday that the 2023/24 regular season will begin on October 24, 2023, and end April 14, 2024, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).
The ongoing ’22/23 regular season opened on October 18 and will conclude April 9, so next season’s start and end dates will be pushed back nearly a week.
According to Charania, the league also told teams that if and when a proposed in-season tournament is approved, the initial regular season schedule would have 80 games per team instead of the standard 82. In that scenario, the remaining games would be scheduled once eight teams advance to a single-elimination format.
As Charania reported in September, the in-season tournament would have cup games running through November, with eight teams advancing to knockout stages in December. All of the games would be part of the regular season schedule, and the finalists would each have one extra game.
In short, the remaining two games for the 22 teams that don’t advance to the single-elimination rounds would be finalized once the cup games conclude, possibly at the end of November.
The in-season tournament has yet to be finalized and still needs to be approved by the NBA and the NBPA before it can be implemented, but obviously the league is targeting next season for its initial run.
Has Adam Silver addressed the issue in China yet?
Another guy who suddenly gets “blind” to injustice when $$$$ are at stake. The people of China love basketball, and the NBA. Many of those fans are among those protesting.
LeBron? Where you at on China? Is already being a billionaire not enough cash?? Are you willing to speak out in exchange for allowing you and Bronny to be teammates?
So 1 of the rewards for advancing to the finals of this in-season tourney (aka non-championship-worth-nothing) is…an extra game?
I bet all the players and fans complaining the season is already too long are uber stoked about that.