Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James reportedly will now support the NBA’s Dec. 22 start date because it is “important” for the NBA’s business.
While James had initially opposed the start date because it made for such a short offseason, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst explained why he came around to the idea.
“It’s good news and bad news,” Windhorst said. “I guess we should all be celebrating as NBA fans that the players agreed to do it Christmas week. You see a lot of players out there on social media getting excited about it and celebrating it. But they only really half agreed to what the hope was they would agree to [Thursday]. They’re not going to agree to the financial arrangement just yet. That’s maybe not a big deal; maybe they go back into negotiations and finish that. But in talking to some people around the call, they were a little bit surprised.
“There was a group of star players on the call that kind of pushed back on this and didn’t think this was a good enough deal. LeBron James was not one of them. LeBron has moved his position on this, from what I am told. He is going to support the December 22nd start because he knows it’s important for NBA business. But there’s some guys who want to push a little bit more on financials.”
James and the Lakers will be facing one of the shortest offseason periods in professional sports history after winning the NBA title this past season.
However, with the NBA’s calendar being impacted due to COVID-19, James and the rest of the league will have to make the sacrifice in order to play as many games as possible during the 2020-21 season.
The COVID-19 pandemic paused the 2019-20 season in March, but the NBA resumed play in the Orlando, Fla. bubble in July.
The league finished its season with the Lakers winning the title in October.
James, who is coming off yet another legendary season, seems to be on board with the NBA’s decision to kick off the 2020-21 year just before Christmas.
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