China Basketball League Returns, Sans Spectators

Basketball fans take note: the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) will resume games on June 20 — albeit with no crowds.

The CBA will be China's first large-scale sports league to restart, now that the country’s coronavirus outbreak is more-or-less under control.

But it’s unclear exactly how the league will adjust its complex handicap system that benefits teams without foreign imports, given that most foreign players are believed to have returned to their home countries when the league was shuttered in January.

According to ESPN, around 40 Americans, including former NBA stars Jeremy Lin and Lance Stephenson, are contracted by the CBA’s 20 teams.

The league shut down on Jan. 24 when most teams had played 30 of their 46 scheduled matches, one day after China’s central government imposed a lockdown on Wuhan and several other cities in Hubei province, where the Covid-19 outbreak began.

CBA announced on its official Weibo page on June 4 that Chinese sport and health officials had given it the green light to recommence the 2019-20 season. The teams will be divided into two pools based on their current rankings to play separate tournaments, one in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, and one in the industrial hub of Dongguan, in Guangdong province.

Caixin understands the streaming platforms Youku and Migu will carry the matches live.

A CBA official told Caixin that high-profile Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan and his team had advised the league on disease control measures, and that coronavirus testing for participants would begin on Friday. No spectators will be allowed at the games.

In a nod to the fact that many teams have foreign players who are currently unable to get into China due to Covid-19 restrictions, the league said that such teams can get themselves re-classified as “purely Chinese” teams.

Under league rules, teams with that designation enjoy restrictions on foreign athletes playing for the teams they face, including on how many can appear on the court at one time.

It’s unclear what impact the development may have on the contracts of foreign players who are unable or unwilling to return.

Contact reporter Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)