As the NBA takes on coronavirus, it’s better to be safe than sorry

As the NBA navigates its minimum 30-day coronavirus hiatus, it should keep an eye on what’s happening in China.

The Chinese Basketball Association initially targeted an April 15 restart date after suspending its season on Feb. 1 amid a coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan. On Wednesday, the Chinese league announced it will delay its restart until May.


The NBA should be in no rush to resume basketball operations while the world battles a global pandemic that has infected more than 440,000 people (on record) and claimed nearly 20,000 lives. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Being sorry could put more players and people at risk of coronavirus exposure.

Leagues across the globe have approached resuming basketball in different ways.

Japan’s B. League suspended its season, then resumed it over the weekend, only to suspend it once again, targeting an April 1 return date. The suspension came as The Japan Times reported a “chaotic weekend” that included games still played in front of hundreds of fans, as well as both players and referees exhibiting coronavirus symptoms. Several games were canceled or delayed, several players sat games out, and six-year NBA veteran Jeff Ayres withdrew from the Japanese League.

"I decided not to practice or play due to concern regarding how the league, and my team specifically, was doing to keep players safe," Ayres told ESPN. "I felt we were putting ourselves at risk. It was a reckless environment."

China has had success containing the virus because they have strictly adhered to self-isolation protocol. Former NC State guard Allerik Freeman has been in China for 11 weeks as the only American basketball player left in the country. He practiced twice a day with his teammates, according to ESPN, and described how the coronavirus has calmed down in China.

"It seems there's a panic in America. Not here,” he said. “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 businesses are open. If that's any indication, it seems it's getting as close to back to normal as possible.”

But other pro basketball leagues across the globe haven’t resumed play, even those that have the virus outbreak under control. South Korea has seen its number of new coronavirus cases decrease dramatically, in part due to an intense testing protocol.

“You get tested while going to restaurants, going to games, going inside malls,” said former Stony Brook standout Jameel Warney, who was scheduled to return to South Korea to play for the Seoul SK Knights, in an interview with Newsday. “Our team lives in a dorm, Every time you enter the dorm, they check your temperature. Every time you walk into a hotel, they have cameras to kind of check your body out. They have a lot of ways to check it out without actually getting tested. They also have drive-thru testing. You can see a doctor. You see the numbers are going down amazingly in the last few weeks.”


The numbers apparently weren’t good enough: South Korea still opted to cancel its season on Monday night.

This puts the NBA’s decision-making into perspective, and what the league has done so far makes sense.

The return of basketball in China is promising for the NBA's prospects of resuming the 2019-20 season, but the league should explore its options cautiously.
The return of basketball in China is promising for the NBA's prospects of resuming the 2019-20 season, but the league should explore its options cautiously.(Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

They’ve suspended the season indefinitely and shut down team practice facilities. They’ve isolated players who have tested positive for the coronavirus and are encouraging other players to quarantine themselves. They are making testing available to players and personnel exhibiting symptoms. Franchises have sought testing from private companies at their own expense.

These precautions had to be taken: Confirmed coronavirus cases spread quickly across the league, from patient zero (Jazz center Rudy Gobert) to his teammate, Donovan Mitchell, then across the league in the blink of an eye. As it stands, four Brooklyn Nets (including Kevin Durant), two unnamed Lakers, one Boston Celtic (Marcus Smart) and one Detroit Piston (Christian Wood) have tested positive for COVID-19. Additionally, three members of the Philadelphia 76ers staff and one Denver Nuggets staffer have tested positive.

These are only cases we know about: Someone infected with the coronavirus could take days or weeks to exhibit symptoms, and many teams have limited testing only to players who are exhibiting symptoms.

Can the NBA steal any ideas other leagues are implementing? Yes, but not soon.


Japanese team Ryukyu Golden Kings and Russian team CSKA Moskow both livestreamed intrasquad scrimmages. This is still risky due to the nature of how the coronavirus is spread: someone can be asymptomatic and still transmit the virus to another individual.

Over in China, the whole of the CBA has been moved into just two cities: DongGuan and Qingdao. The league is expected to play four regular-season games a week for four weeks before starting the playoffs, according to ESPN.

This is an idea the NBA has toyed with: moving games to cities with low or no coronavirus cases. Those cities, however, are becoming fewer and further between: As of March 24, there are more than 50,000 confirmed coronavirus cases across the country and more than 600 deaths, including more than 200 in New York state alone.

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The states with the fewest coronavirus cases are non-NBA states: Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, New Mexico, West Virginia, Vermont and Kansas. The NBA could consider relocating games to cities within those states.

The NBA should not follow the footsteps of Italy, the country with the highest coronavirus fatality rate, whose Lega Basket Serie A has opted to allow teams to resume practices.

The only certainty is uncertainty: uncertainty with regard to the far-reaching implications of the coronavirus outbreak, and whether they’ll be able to restart any time soon.

With lives at stake, it’s better to be safe than sorry: Even if other countries are safely playing basketball right now.