What the NBA and players' union must resolve to start new season

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Assn. entered another week of negotiations on when and how to start the 2020-21 season with the immediate future of the league at stake, and they're doing it with the uneasy knowledge that the puzzle in front of them is more difficult than the one they solved months ago.

In the teeth of a global pandemic, faced with billions of dollars evaporating from balance sheets and no clear path to a finish line, the NBA and its players' union figured out how to build a Florida bubble. They agreed on protocols that kept the players from recording a single case of COVID-19 while the virus thrived around them. They salvaged some money while crowning deserving champions in LeBron James and the Lakers.