In a normal year, the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) would have recently begun their respective seasons. This year, things are a little different.

The NHL and NBA each had to delay their postseasons due to COVID-19 earlier in 2020. Usually each league would finish around June, but this year the NHL didn’t wrap up its Stanley Cup finals until about a month ago, and the NBA Finals ended a few weeks ago.

Normally, there would be a few months in between the finals and the start of the next season. Because of these delayed playoffs, those leagues won’t be playing games again until 2021 most likely.

We are used to seeing the NFL, NBA and NHL all in action during the fall and winter, but now the NFL is the only league playing, once MLB’s Word Series concludes. After these last few months of nonstop sports, we will be slowing down again as we head into the holiday season.

The NHL originally wanted to begin its season on New Year’s Day of 2021, which would’ve been great, but it looks like that is now out of the question. The NBA was aiming for a Christmas Day tip-off for the new season, which also would’ve been great, but that is also unlikely.

With the Jan. 1 start date ruled out for the NHL, February might be a more realistic start date. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said that January through March is when the league is aiming to start now.

I know, that really doesn’t give us much information at all.

And while they are still trying to figure out a start date for the next season, this could have implications on the 2021-22 seasons.

I think the goal for each of the leagues is to start the 2021-22 season on time, so the earlier they start this season, the better.

As a sports fan, it’s highly frustrating not knowing when your favorite team will play again.

I hope everyone likes watching football, because that’s all we are going to get over the next few months.

Still, for that we should be grateful.

ALEX PEPKE
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