The NBA is planning to paint “Black Lives Matter” on all three basketball courts when it resumes the 2020 season at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida on July 30, according to ESPN.
In an effort to continue talking about social justice and racial inequality, the league will paint the phrase within both lines. Chris Paul, who is also president of the National Basketball Players Association, told The Undefeated that the union was working with the league to get players to wear “personalized social justice, social cause or charity messages” behind Oklahoma City Thunder le their shirts.
NBA DISCUSSION PLANS TO LEAVE PLAYERS TO SHOW MESSAGES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE ON JERSEYS: REPORT
The league released its schedule last Friday and the first set of games features Zion Williamson and the New Orleans pelicans, as well as LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers. New Orleans will play in the first game of the resumption of the NBA season on July 30th, facing Utah in the opening of a doubleheader. And just like the first first night of this season like no other, the nationally broadcast second game of the twinbill will put the Lakers against the Los Angeles Clippers.
For the 22 teams that will go to Disney, the configuration of the eight-game lists will be substantially the same: one back-to-back for each of the clubs, with all the games being played over a 16-day period ending on August 14. The NBA will use three arenas at Disney, and in addition to slate for two games on the opening night, between four and seven games will be held every day.
There will be some very unusual elements, with games starting at 1:00 p.m. on weekdays, 12:30 p.m. on weekends, and most nights see the end of the list with tips at 9:00 p.m. – plus NBA Finals games , an absolute rarity for games going on on the east coast.
Plans predicted that 52 of the 88 seeding games would be aired nationwide, with 18 on TNT (including the opening night doubleheader), 17 on ESPN, 14 on NBA TV and three on ABC. The games will also be shown in local markets.
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Most of the arenas on the ESPN Wide World of Sports campus will be used for multiple games each day, with no tip scheduled for less than four hours from each other in each of these three buildings – and with the league that allows the time between games for heavy sanitization.
If a play-in tournament for suit no. 8 in both conferences is necessary for the ninth place of the team ending within four games of the team in eighth, those games in one of the two best series that team n. 9 would need to sweep would begin on August 15th.
The NBA playoffs will begin on August 17th and the NBA finals will begin on September 30th with a possible game 7 on October 13th.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
