Report: Next NBA season to start Oct. 19

The NBA's 2021-22 regular season will tip off Oct. 19, sources told The Athletic's Shams Charania.

The league sent a memo to teams Thursday revealing the date, Charania adds.

The 2022 playoffs are reportedly slated to begin April 16, with The Finals culminating by June 19. The 2022 draft is penciled in for June 23.

Training camps will open Sept. 28.

An October start date returns the NBA to its traditional October-April regular-season schedule after the pandemic upended the league's usual calendar.

Commissioner Adam Silver said in March that he was "optimistic" the league would be able to resume its normal routine for 2021-22 with hopes of allowing "relatively full arenas."

An Oct. 19 start date could mean another abbreviated offseason for some players, however. The same issue drew criticism in late 2020 when players from last season's finalists, the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, were limited to a break of just over 70 days before the new campaign.

This year's Finals will run as late as July 22, providing a three-month offseason for most players. That rest period could be reduced to just over two months for any NBA stars who compete at the Olympics, with the gold-medal game scheduled to take place Aug. 8.