#NBA stars pushing for MLK Day start date

The NBA wants to restart games in time for Christmas, but its star players have another holiday in mind.

A “substantial faction of players and star players” are pushing for the next season to begin on Jan. 18 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — after free agency gets underway Dec. 1, according to a Yahoo Sports report.

The league reportedly is targeting Dec. 22 and an abbreviated 72-game season that finishes before the 2021 Summer Olympics. Under that plan, free agency would begin shortly after the Nov. 18 draft and training camps would open Dec. 1.

The Lakers and Heat are barely two weeks removed from playing for the championship, but the reality facing the NBA and NHL is that the COVID-19 pandemic affected two seasons by pushing the end of 2019-20 into the fall rather than the traditional June finish.

The NBA got its lockout-shortened 2011-12 season underway on Dec. 25, less than three weeks after a labor agreement was reached. The season traditionally runs from late October through the spring.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day typically features special matinee games in some markets and nationally televised games all day long.