The NBA will take another step toward normalcy with the launch of its 2020- 21 campaign with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, bolstered by a flurry of offseason moves, favored to repeat as champions.
This season also marks four-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant’s long-awaited Brooklyn Nets debut and Stephen Curry’s return to the Golden State Warriors line-up after missing games last season with a broken left hand. After the NBA held the final three months of last season at Disney World in a so-called bubble designed to keep inhabitants safe from COVID-19, teams will resume traveling between cities for games when the regular season tips off this week.
A handful of teams plan to have a limited number of fans at games early in the season but the NBA undoubtedly hopes fewer COVID-19 cases and a successful roll-out of vaccines will allow teams to finish their campaigns in front of packed houses.
While the NBA also supports Olympic participation, however, a reduced 72-game schedule followed by playoffs that could run until July 22 will almost certainly keep some players from being at the July 23-Aug. 8 Tokyo Games.
