The NBA seems to be pushing harder and harder to get the players union to agree to a season start date on (or just before) Christmas Day. Reports first surfaced last week that doing so was a target for the league, and now we have confirmed why: Shams Charania of the Athletic reports that the league thinks it would lose $500 million by not getting its marquee Christmas Day showdowns.
It remains to be seen if the NBPA concurs with that projection, but if they do and agree to start then, the 2020-21 season would begin just around two months after the 2019-20 version ended.