Adam Silver 'Fairly Optimistic' 2021-22 NBA Season Will Start on Time

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters at his annual All-Star Game Weekend press conference that he is "fairly optimistic" the 2021-22 season will start on time.

The NBA season typically begins in mid-to-late October and ends by mid-June. 

The 2020-21 season's start was delayed two months to late December after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to suspend play for nearly five months at the tail end of the 2019-20 season, leading to the NBA Finals finishing in October.

Silver also added that he was hoping for "relatively full" arenas by the beginning of the 2021-22 season.

Fourteen NBA teams have allowed a limited number of fans into their stands at some point this season, with the San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics also announcing plans to do so after the All-Star break, per ESPN's Royce Young.

The NBA completed the first half of its season last Thursday amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-one games have been postponed due to the NBA's health and safety protocols, although two of those contests have been rescheduled and played.

Regarding how the first half of the season went, Silver offered the following comments, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

"Adam Silver says the first half of the season went 'as expected,'" Bontemps tweeted. "Said the league expected games to be lost, and that the league's protocols have held up."

Silver also said the league is not considering moving back into a bubble environment, which it did to complete the 2019-20 season in Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.

"We're not considering going back to a bubble right now," Silver said, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "We're not ruling anything out."

The second half of the 2020-21 NBA schedule is slated to begin Wednesday and run through May 16. The playoffs will start in May and end in July.