If the NBA’s position is to fall back into action this season and then eventually spring ahead, the upshot could be an unexpected win for South Florida.
Among the talking points for the NBA amid the league’s current shutdown is a revised 2020-21 schedule designed to accommodate a delayed finish to this season, one that could stretch deep into the summer if a restart is possible amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
That could have next season starting on Christmas Day, and potentially have future seasons adopting the same approach.
Avoiding early-season competition with football long has had a Christmas start as an NBA consideration, with Dec. 25 the start of the lockdown-delayed 2011-12 season, a season that ended with a Miami Heat championship parade down Biscayne Boulevard.
What would follow on such a timetable could be game-changing for big-event South Florida.
The last time, and only time, the Heat hosted NBA All-Star Weekend was in 1990, at since-razed Miami Arena.
Since then, the combination of the Miami International Boat Show and Coconut Grove Arts Festival on Presidents Weekend, and the accompanying lack of remaining hotel and convention-center space, has made the possibility of again hosting at that preferred spot on the NBA calendar a non-starter.
“The date is too problematic in South Florida,” Heat President Eric Woolworth has told the Sun Sentinel.
But considering the current scheduling has All-Star Weekend approximately 3 1/2 months into the season, a revised, Dec. 25-starting schedule could have All-Star Weekend in mid-April, if the goal remains to create a weeklong midseason break to allow players to recharge.
For South Florida, that would be a game-changer when it comes to All-Star timing, also setting the date far enough from potential future South Florida Super Bowls in early February.
“We talked to them about trying to change the weekend,” Woolworth told the Sun Sentinel of previous Heat attempts to rework the Presidents Weekend All-Star timing, “but I just don’t think that works for them.”
A revised NBA calendar essentially would dictate such change, otherwise forcing the league to select All-Stars a mere month into the season.
In fact, when considering the possibilities, consider this: An NBA All-Star Game under the stars in Miami in mid-April, if the scheduling could be worked out during baseball season, at Marlins Park (we can talk about parking another time).
Among the concerns of teams that have avoided hosting the All-Star Game has been seating limitations for season-ticket holders. Move to a stadium setting and those concerns would be alleviated. Plus, AmericanAirlines Arena still could be the venue for the Rising Stars Challenge on All-Star Friday, as well as for the All-Star Saturday events.
As it is, the NBA has booked its All-Star venues through 2023 — with the 2021 All-Star Game in Indiana, the 2022 game in Cleveland and the 2023 game in Utah. Of course, should there be conflicts because of an altered schedule …
After Chicago this past February and those next three sites, a touch of South Florida warmth in April could prove particularly appealing, with all due respect to recently constructed venues looking to stage their first All-Star events, in San Francisco, Milwaukee and Detroit (give them the draft, instead).
As it is, the National Basketball Players Association have been holding their annual midseason meetings in the Bahamas immediately after All-Star Weekend. Play the All-Star Game in Miami and players could be Bahamas-bound by midnight.
As with all things NBA, the current schedule, let along future schedules, remains an abstract.
But time-shifting could shift Miami into a better place when it comes to hosting an All-Star Game for the first time since Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and John Stockton took their talents to South Florida on Feb. 11, 1990.
———
©2020 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.