The NBA is back.
Was it ever actually gone?
Was there even an off season?
If you think Christmas is close, remember a brand new NBA season – without the bubble – starts before the holidays. Here’s your Christmas present, hoops fans.
After having just a 71-day offseason, the NBA will play a 72-game regular season starting on December 22. The playoffs are scheduled to begin May 22 and the NBA Finals Game Seven would be on July 22nd of next year.
It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention – most of us are forcefully focused on the present – but the Olympic games that were supposed to take place last summer are indeed scheduled for the coming summer, if – as they say – the good’s Lord willing and the vaccines arrive.
The 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games are slated to begin the day after that scheduled Game Seven, on July 23rd.
With what happened to the last NBA season – essentially a full offseason taking place in the middle of the year before the finishing event in the Orlando bubble – and the late start to the upcoming season, who could be available to take the court for the next machination of the Dream Team in Tokyo hasn’t been getting a lot of attention. There’s a very good reason of course, but still…
Which NBA stars – if any – could we reasonably ask or expect to go compete for the Red, White, and Blue next summer after playing competitively for pretty much 10 of the prior 12 months?
Team USA and Head Coach Gregg Popovich better start making alternative plans right now. How are guys whose teams are in the NBA postseason – and that could include the head coach himself – going to be able to compete at all in Tokyo?
No reasonable person could expect a player like say, Lebron James, to participate in the NBA Finals and then jet to right to Tokyo while changing uniforms in mid-flight. Not gonna happen.
You’d have to expect with combination of the short time span and the wear and tear involved, that players like Lebron and his teammate Anthony Davis would have already pulled out. The mid-season offseason helped the oft-injured Davis last season, so it stands to reason that doing the exact opposite of what helped keep him healthy – asking him to take on a heavier workload – would be an immediate non-starter. Go ahead and scratch those two.
It’s tough to imagine any of the key players who participated in the bubble postseason, and who play for teams that could do the same in 2021, would have much interest in even entertaining playing more games in the compacted 12-month period. So guys like Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, Jason Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Paul George, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard will all likely opt out, if they haven’t done so already. And reasonably so.
So who does that leave to rep the Stars and Stripes?
You might be able to reasonably check in with guys like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving – guys who missed all or most of last season and who could be considered to have “fresh legs” under the circumstances. But even they may not be available if the Golden State Warriors and the Brooklyn Nets are in the NBA postseason.
Actually, 2021 could be the year that some combination of very young NBA talent and high level college kids get to rep Team USA.
Depending on the fortunes of the New Orleans Pelicans, for instance, Zion Williamson could be a possibility. Ja Morant too, if the Memphis Grizzlies aren’t going anywhere. Guys from teams that miss the playoffs could conceivably join a very young Team USA.
Maybe top draft picks from this season, like Anthony Edwards from Minnesota, or James Wiseman from Golden State or LaMelo Ball with Charlotte might be available if their teams are involved in the postseason.
Otherwise, it could be left to the premier collegians to beat the best the rest of the world has to offer. So get used to hearing names like Luka Garza from Iowa, and Jared Butler from Baylor, and Remy Martin from Arizona State. Guys like these and many others could be the ones we count on to keep the Men’s Olympic Gold Medal here in the ancestral home of basketball.
The good news is that guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Luca Doncic, Jamal Murray, Kristaps Porzingis and others will probably also be involved in the NBA post season and won’t be available for their respective country’s squads.
All this means that 2021 Men’s Olympic Basketball could mark the return of the “Our best semi-amateurs can beat your best semi-amateurs.” That would ultimately benefit Team USA – even if we can’t put another Dream Team on the court this time.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
More from The Woody Paige Sports Network:
- Woody Paige: That time I played blackjack with Michael Jordan in Monte Carlo
- ‘Most losses in 2020’ prop bet offers NFL bettors huge value
- Lewis Black rants on Dan Snyder — the worst owner in pro sports
- Atlanta Falcons lose by accidentally scoring a touchdown
- Woody Paige: Denver Broncos could become NFL’s version of New York Knicks
- MLB rumors: Is Nolan Arenado headed to Los Angeles?
- Woody Paige: Garett Bolles underdog story is reminiscent to that of Rulon Gardner
