OKC Thunder: NBPA player reps vote affirmatively for Dec. 22 season start

OKC Thunder fans can mark their calendars as NBPA reps voted for a December  22nd opening night with a truncated 72-game season.

Player reps for the OKC Thunder all 30 teams voted on Thursday evening on a 2020-21 season consisting of 72 games with a December 22nd opening night.

Money talks! We’ve said it all along the Board of Governor’s preferred start date would prevail. As noted previously the BoG desired the December 22nd start versus the NBPA start date preference of January 18th (MLK Jr. Day). But the loss of revenue would’ve been potentially as much as a billion had the league waited until January.

Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news on social media and followed up with his ESPN article on the agreement.

NBPA confirms 12.22.20 start with 72-games

"The league and players are still negotiating financial terms of an amended collective bargaining agreement, and those talks are expected to extend into next week, sources said. Once a formal agreement is reached, the league will lift a moratorium and reopen the league for business on trades prior to the draft.The league believes that a Dec. 22 start that includes Christmas Day games on television and allows for a 72-game schedule that finishes before the Summer Olympics in July is worth between $500 million and $1 billion in short- and long-term revenues to the league and the players, sources said."

From the start, the Board of Governors have leaned toward the earlier start, and as per Woj money was the main reason. This earlier start date will allow the NBA to avoid competing against numerous other major league sports as they did in the bubble.

It also allows the association to avoid competing with the Toyko Olympics which would be a TV rating nightmare. Moreover, the playoffs would end mid to late July allowing for all players an opportunity to represent their country on a national team including the teams in the NBA Finals.

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There are still segments of the plan to be finalized. While the stakeholders have agreed in principle to move forward major financial portions of the agreement need to be ironed out. The timeline to finalize the amended CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) was extended given the intricacies involved.

A key part of this amendment is tied to players’ salaries and the portion held in escrow. Typically 10 percent of players’ salaries are held in escrow but given the loss of fan revenue and impact of the pandemic, the thought was it could increase to 18 percent or higher. An option the parties are discussing is spreading out the escrow percentage over a number of seasons so players wouldn’t take the hit all in one season.

As noted prior training camps would begin on December 1st and the NBA Draft is still on track for November 18th. The starting date for free agency has yet to be determined but both sides are keen to start as close to the draft as possible.

It’s going to be a very tight window with the draft, free agency, training camp, and preseason all running in close succession.