How well NBA will have weathered the pandemic?

PHOENIX — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league’s ability to get over a million fans back into attendance during the playoffs has helped it stem financial losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We did somewhat better than we initially projected,” Silver said Tuesday before Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “We don’t have the exact numbers yet, but maybe we’ll be down roughly a third in revenue, something around there, instead of 40%.” The idea of expansion, which was raised as an idea to generate revenue during the pandemic, seems to have been placed on the backburner.

Silver added that while the burden for those losses will be shared by both franchise owners and players, because of the way the league splits up Basketball Related Income (BRI), he was hopeful that “if things continue on track, we could move toward a new season, next year, that looks a lot more like normal” and “we’ll have weathered [the pandemic] very well.”