The schedule of Tokyo Olympics affects the US basketball tournaments (Part 1)
By changing the time of the Tokyo Olympics to July 23 to August 8, 2021, this will directly affect the NBA 2020-2021 season as well as the NCAA.
According to the latest announcement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Tokyo Olympic Games will take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. The meeting between the IOC and the organizers and local officials determined the time.
A week earlier, the IOC had agreed with host Japan to suspend the Tokyo Olympics for fear of the Covid-19 pandemic. Compared to the old schedule, Olympic from 24/7 to 9/8/2020, Paralympic from 25/8 to 6/9, the new calendar is back one full year. This decision is based on three bases: protecting the health of athletes and related people, protecting the rights of the athletes and based on the schedule of global sports tournaments.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will take place in late July 2021
With the decision to change the date of the Tokyo Olympic Games to the summer of 2021, this schedule will obviously directly affect the NBA 2020-2021 season and even make it difficult for the US men’s basketball team.
Earlier on March 11, President Adam Silver had to suspend the NBA tournament after finding out the first player case was positive for SARS-CoV-2. After meetings between the tournament organizers and the team owners, all come to a unanimous suspense of a minimum of the 2019-2020 season until mid or late June.
According to the tournament’s previous schedule, the NBA 2019-2020 will end in early July and the players will have about 4 months to rest before entering the new season.
However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is likely that the off-season period between the two seasons will be less. Along with the new schedule of the Tokyo Olympics, the 2020-2021 season will likely overlap or be very close to each other.