NBA remains 'pessimistic' about resuming 2019-2020 season

Last week, the Chinese tried to restart their basketball league and found out that asymptomatic carriers are causing a second wave of infections.

The sports world is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The NBA is one of the first professional leagues to suspend all operations due to the virus. At the moment, league officials' current line of thinking is that they won't be able to finish the current season.

The NBA is not a stranger to shorter competition formats due to lockdowns. It was always able to find a way to resume games and crown a champion. Since the league started in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), a winner clinched the Larry O' Brien Championship Trophy each year. If the league cancels the season, it will be the first time since the BAA/NBA began that it will not have a champion.

One of the main reasons why the league is pessimistic about restarting competition is due to the situation that developed in China. Last week, the Chinese tried to restart their basketball league and found out that asymptomatic carriers are causing a second wave of infections.

There is also the issue of player salaries. While the Players Union is doing their job of protecting the binding contracts of players, without revenue, teams are hard-pressed into shouldering the majority of the financial burden themselves.

There is also a plan to have the entire league play in Las Vegas in an isolated bubble. However, Public Health officials are against the idea, and the association does not want to be proven wrong after-the-fact.

The team-wide tests have not been completed due to a lack of testing kits. The league doesn't want to use too many kits just to restart competition, and take tests away from other places that really need them.

According to NBC Sports, ESPN's Brian Windhorst on SportsCenter gave an update that the league is looking at resuming the season as late as August or September. That is the only realistic option the NBA has on the table. But that date would go past June 30, when players' contracts expire and go into free agency. It then becomes another legal problem for both the NBA and the Players Union.