On Friday, December 4, the NBA released the first half of the new 72 game regular season, which is a change from the traditional 82 game season basketball enthusiasts are used to. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season starts a lot later than usual on December 23, just before Christmas Eve. Junior Amir Eslamian says, “I am excited about the upcoming NBA season but worried about the stars health due to the shortened offseason.” It was also announced that the six-day NBA AllStar break will happen on March 4 instead of mid-February like it usually is. The second half of the schedule for the 2020-2021 NBA regular season is set to release shortly before the end of the first half, although the date has not been specified. Junior Julio Jativa says, “I am looking forward to the upcoming NBA season as my beloved Lakers have signed an elite Spanish center that goes by the name of Marc Gasol.” Jativa “fully expects” Gasol to be selected to the AllStar game come March. The reason the league is not releasing the entire schedule at once is because the NBA wants to plan out travel and cost-efficient roadtrips to make the season as efficient as possible. This means playing teams that are geographically close to each other back to back. The last time the NBA had a season with less than 82 games before the coronavirus pandemic was in the 2011-2012 season when there were only 65 games played due to a lockout in the beginning of the season.