After an eventful Wednesday that saw the NBA suspend its 2019/20 season indefinitely, many international basketball leagues are following suit on Thursday.
The EuroLeague, widely considered to be the world’s most competitive league outside of the NBA, announced that it has suspended all its games until further notice. EuroCup contests have also been suspended indefinitely, according to the announcement.
Per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (via Twitter), leagues around Europe are taking similar measures. The ABA Liga, which features teams from Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia, among other countries suspended play today. So did the professional leagues in Poland, Greece, and the Ukraine.
Other leagues may join that list in the coming hours or days, while some had already suspended play before Thursday. Spain’s Liga ACB announced earlier in the week that games for the next two weeks would be postponed. That break may now be extended further, with Real Madrid announcing today that a player on its roster has tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, FIBA has announced that all its competitions will be suspended indefinitely, beginning on Friday. It remains to be seen how long that hiatus will last, but if it extends well into the spring, it could have a major impact on this year’s Olympic qualifying tournaments, which are scheduled to take place in late June.
As leagues in North America and Europe shut down, the Chinese Basketball Association is preparing to resume play in April. According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, the CBA – which put its schedule on hold earlier this year – has told American players to return to China this week, though it’s not clear how many players will comply, since several have safety concerns.
According to Givony, some agents representing players who are under contract in China have said that CBA teams are telling them their clients are at risk of being banned from the league for life if they don’t return. Agents may also be at risk of losing their licenses there for two or three seasons.
Givony notes that there have been positive signs in China in recent weeks regarding containment of the virus, prompting the CBA to try to figure out how to finish its 2019/20 season. American players have been informed that they’ll need to spend 14 days in quarantine upon returning to China, sources tell ESPN.
Collective madness has taken over the world!
No more sports anywhere. It’s all Rudy Gobert’s fault.
CBA must be joking. They benefit more from former NBA players coming to China than the players, that is why these guys get big paydays.
“Banned for life” unless you risk your own life?