The Chinese Basketball Association is facing another setback, having postponed the resumption of its 2019/20 season until at least July, according to Chinese journalist Zhang Duo (Twitter link). The CBA, which initially suspended its season in January, had wanted to resume play on April 15, but has been forced to push that target date back multiple times.
In a full story on the CBA’s latest delay, Jonathan Givony of ESPN writes that a final decision on resuming the league’s season can’t be made without government clearance, and that won’t happen until mid-May at the earliest. There’s still a chance that the remainder of the season will be canceled altogether.
A government order banning non-citizens from traveling into China complicates the situation, as we detailed last month. While some foreign players had returned to China before that ban was implemented in March, others had yet to do so — it remains to be seen if and when they’ll actually be able to re-enter the country to rejoin their teams.
As for the import players who did report to China in March, they’re now stuck in limbo, as Givony explains. They’ve completed their 14-day quarantines and CBA teams have started conducting basketball activities, but with the season not scheduled to resume for at least two-and-a-half more months, it’s unclear whether all of those players will continue being paid to stick around.
According to Givony, some of the top CBA players told ESPN that they plan to stay in China as long as they continue to receive their salaries, since leaving now and then returning in the summer would mean undergoing two additional 14-day quarantines.
Givony cites a report from Chinese outlet Xinhua, which suggests that some top CBA executives – including CEO Wang Dawei – will accept a pay reduction to help ease the financial burden on the league.
The CBA’s latest setback doesn’t bode well for the NBA and other major sports leagues around the world hoping that resumed seasons will be possible in the coming months. Even if the Chinese league is able to restart in July, its hiatus would have lasted more than five months by that point.
I just read that proffesional sports in Florida is considered “essential”. Is that a good thing ?
are we surprise they didnt have a stay at home order till like late march /early this month i believe and i bet someone paid them some good money to have them say that
There is as tremendous amount of competition among states to attract business, and it is usually the workers who pay the price.