Professional basketball appears set to return to the first countries in Asia inflicted with the coronavirus, though it likely will be played without spectators.
Games in South Korea, which drew worldwide praise for its success in containing the virus, seem closest to returning. South Korea’s league, the KBL, has games scheduled at the end of March, though in empty arenas. Many teams will see their American players landing in airports around the country over the next week, several agents told ESPN.
The South Korean league has been suspended since late February, and many foreign players elected to return home for their scheduled four-week hiatus. Not all foreign players will return, but it appears enough will to attempt to play games in two weeks.
In Japan, where leagues were suspended in mid-February, games were played behind closed doors this weekend, though a couple of events rattled players and raised questions over the viability of the remainder of the season.
A game between the Chiba Jets and Utsunomiya Brex was postponed after mandatory temperature checks for all participants revealed a referee with a fever, according to a notice posted on the teams’ websites.
The Shiga Lakestars played without any foreign players after their three American players asked to opt out of their contracts, according to local reports. Levanga Hokkaido did not suit up this weekend after three American players were diagnosed with fevers, the Japanese media reported. Several foreign players from the lower divisions in Japan also have elected to return home.
Representatives of several players under contract in Japan said they expect the league to be canceled for the remainder of the season, because of unease over the virus. An official announcement is expected in the coming days.
Japan is continuing preparations to host the Summer Olympics in late July.
The Chinese Basketball Association has been on hiatus since late January but is taking steps to call Americans back to prepare for games in early April. That has been met with resistance from some players and agents who feel the situation in China still is too unstable to resume the games, even in empty arenas. However, at least a dozen Americans elected to board planes for China this weekend, including some of the league’s biggest stars, and more players are expected to report to their Chinese teams this week to begin the mandatory two-week quarantine period.
CBA officials continue to discuss the resumption of play, sources told ESPN. One topic is whether to continue play with only local Chinese players. The league reportedly is waiting to see how many Americans actually return to China before making a decision.
Several agents said they have been guaranteed in writing that Americans who voluntarily return will be compensated for the time they spend in China, as well as any back pay owed, even if they do not end up playing any games.
Should the league resume with American players, games are expected to start around April 15 in two cities, DongGuan and Qingdao, where 20 teams will play out the regular season behind closed doors. The situation remains fluid, however.
There remains concern about the players’ poor conditioning following the quarantines, and overall safety concerns still exist among players, but there is a growing sense among some that China, where the virus outbreak is improving, might be a safer place to be now. The players also know they’ll continue to get paid.
N.C. State-graduate Allerik Freeman arrived in China in early January, after his contract was bought out from a team in Turkey, just as the coronavirus was starting to spread. He elected to stay in China for the past 10 weeks — the only American to do so — and practiced twice a day with his teammates.
“At first it was because my visa was taking so long, it’s normally a two-week process,” Freeman said. “Because of the virus and the Chinese New Year it ended up taking much longer, until around mid-February. By that time, I thought it would be counterproductive to leave and go play in another league and risk the same exact thing happening once the virus spread.
“My only regret is that I decided to send my fiancé and five-year daughter son back to the US. Sometimes I wish I kept them here with me because it seems it’s getting worse in America than it is here. It seems there’s a panic in America. Not here. People stayed home and just didn’t interact with each other. Now life is back to normal from what it seems.” People are walking around. The streets are flooded. Bumper-to-bumper traffic. Most restaurants and business are open. If that’s any indication it seems its getting as close to back to normal as possible.”
In other international basketball action:
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The games in Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Belarus, Chile, Russia and Serbia continue to be played, behind closed doors.
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In Great Britain, a BBL Trophy competition game between the Newcastle Eagles and Solent Kestrels was played in front of several hundred fans. Three foreign players on Newcastle asked to be released before the game and were allowed to return home.
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In Turkey, New Zealand national Tai Webster, who played at Nebraska, decided not to play for Galatasaray, joining former first-round draft pick Shane Larkin (considered the best player in European basketball), Adrien Moerman, Alec Peters, Bryant Dunston and Krunoslav Simon, all of whom sat out Anadolu Efes’ Sunday game against Turk Telekom.
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In Belgium, the league was canceled, joining Bosnia, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Ireland and Cyprus. Filou Oostende were named champions, their eighth title in a row. Oostende is still competing in the FIBA Champions League playoffs, as their series with Spanish team Tenerife is tied 1-1, thought it appears unlikely that that series will proceed.
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Spanish teams will meet Monday to discuss the possibility of canceling the ACB season, newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported Sunday. Cancellation will allow teams to terminate players’ contracts without having to pay them the remainder of their salaries. Several international agents say international basketball teams will have strong incentives to terminate players’ contracts and it will be difficult to compel teams to pay clients for the duration of the season even without force majeure language included in agreements.
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FIBA Europe canceled the FIBA Europe Cup, which was in the Final Four stage, as well as the EuroLeague Women and EuroCup Women competitions. Two competitions, the Euroleague Men and EuroCup men’s leagues, remain indefinitely suspended. The organization also agreed to “monitor and decide by April any possible rescheduling or relocation of all upcoming summer events,” including youth tournaments such as the U16, U18 and U20 European Championships.