NBA Reportedly Prefers In-Market Games over Bubble for 2020-21 Season

Despite the NBA's success in a single location to finish this season, the league would prefer to play the 2020-21 season in home markets. 

Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the NBA said during a call with all 30 general managers on Friday that it "prefers in-market competition with reduced travel and an amount of fans" instead of staging all games at a bubble location. 

This is in keeping with what Adam Silver has said about the 2020-21 campaign. The commissioner told ESPN's Rachel Nichols during the draft lottery show on Aug. 20 that he was looking into what he would like to see happen before beginning next season: 

"I'd say Dec. 1, now that we're working through this season, is feeling a little bit early to me. I think our No. 1 goal is to get fans back in our arenas. ... So my sense is, in working with the players' association, if we could push back even a little longer and increase the likelihood of having fans in arenas, that's what we would be targeting."

Charania noted the league told the Board of Governors on Thursday that next season "will start no sooner than Dec. 25" with the hope of an 82-game schedule and that an announcement about the structure would be given to them "with eight weeks' notice of the final start date."

Since July 30, the NBA has held games at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The location has worked well, with no positive coronavirus cases since teams and league officials arrived on campus.