Adam Silver: 2020-21 NBA Season More Likely to Start in January Than December

The NBA traditionally dominates the sports calendar on Christmas Day, but that may not be the case in 2020.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference prior to Wednesday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals and discussed a potential timeline for the 2020-21 campaign with the current season pushed back so much because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Silver said Christmas is the earliest the season will begin, but a January start is "more likely," per Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Silver also said he is "hopeful" there will be fans at games next year because of rapid testing, but would not commit to anything, per Mark Medina of USA Today. "Nothing has changed in the virus, as far as I know."

As is the case for much of the sports world as attention gradually turns to what will happen next season with the NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs and MLB regular season wrapped up or wrapping up, there is plenty of uncertainty.

It was a massive ordeal and, quite frankly, a very successful one to orchestrate a way to finish the 2019-20 campaign inside the bubble-like environment at Walt Disney World Resort. Even Silver himself said he "resisted" the idea of the bubble at first, per Stein.

Yet the NBA was able to finish the regular season with seeding games, put on a play-in game between the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies, and then complete a traditional playoffs even though there were no fans attending the games.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat are the only teams remaining, and one will lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy after navigating a lengthy postponement, move to Walt Disney World Resort and the actual playoffs.

Whether there will need to be a bubble or something similar next season remains to be seen, as developments surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic will surely dictate what Silver and the NBA do for the 2020-21 campaign even though he said, "I'm hoping, ideally, we would not return to a bubble environment," per Howard Beck of Bleacher Report.

For now, the commissioner is focused on what appears to be a January start, which will give even the players on the Lakers and Heat enough of an offseason to recover after playing into October.