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The NBA is back.
League owners and the National Basketball Players Association are expected to approve a season restart plan that would invite 22 teams to Orlando, Fla., according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski
All 22 teams coming to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex on the Disney DIS, +2.61% campus near Orlando would play eight games to determine playoff seeding before the playoffs begins. Games will most likely resume on July 31, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The Western Conference will have 13 teams going to Disney, and the Eastern Conference will have nine. The NBA playoffs usually include the top 16 teams. For this abbreviated season, it will include the top 22. That means the following six teams will make the playoffs: Memphis, Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix and Washington, according to ESPN.
There are still some elements of the restart plan that could be changed, and other matters are being negotiated — such as how much of a percentage of their contracts that players will lose because some regular season games will be canceled.
The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously and has been home to, among other things, the Jr. NBA World Championship in recent years. ESPN, one of the NBA’s broadcast partners, is primarily owned by Disney.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently told owners that the target date for the league to resume play is July 31. While no official announcments have been about the presence of fans, most reporting on the resumption of sports indicates fans will not be present.
See also:5 health guidelines that need to be in place for sports to return
The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz became the first player in the league to test positive for the coronavirus.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
