NBA season to resume on StarTimes with ESPN

Aldrine Nsubuga (Right) StarTimes Media regional marketing director. [File/Standard]

The NBA 2019/20 season is set to resume on July 30th after nearly five months break occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. Pay Television Company StarTimes will broadcast the games through the ESPN channel.

The NBA games will be unlike any previous year with social distancing requirements keeping fans away and the action taking centre stage at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, inside Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Speaking on the resumption of the NBA season, StarTimes Regional Marketing Director Aldrine Nsubuga said:

“We are excited to add more sports offering for our subscribers. Basketball lovers in Kenya can now look forward to action coming back on their screens through the ESPN channel.”

Only the best 22 of the league’s 30 teams will participate. Each team will play eight games to finish the regular season. From these, the top seven teams in each conference will advance, with the final eighth seed in each conference being determined by a potential play-in tournament before the traditional 16-team playoffs.

LeBron James’ LA Lakers are the outstanding favourites to take the title. When the NBA season was postponed, the Lakers sat atop the West with a 49-14 mark.

In the West, the other contender is the Clippers. Prior to the beginning of the 2019-20 season, the Clippers were considered favourites to win the title after they added to their ranks Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

The only squad with a better mark than the Lakers is the Milwaukee Bucks. Led by the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, they have benefited from playing in the significantly weaker Eastern Conference.