There are concerns that if the 20-21 NBA season does not begin by Christmas, their television parents may want to renegotiate their deals.
The NBA negotiated a nine-year, $24 billion contract with ESPN, ABC and Turner Sports running from the 16-17 through 24-25 in October of 2014.
After initially preferring to wait to start the season to increase the odds of having fans back in attendance for games, the NBA reversed course and sought a condensed offseason with regular season games starting on December 22nd.
The NBA now has evidence that ratings are adversely impacted by playing deep into the summer and competing against the NFL.