Jeremy Lin, others ‘in limbo’ waiting to see if Chinese Basketball Association restarts
Should the Chinese Basketball Association restart its season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeremy Lin is ready.
The former NBA star made the trek back to Beijing last month and underwent a two-week quarantine there before rejoining the Ducks to resume practice. At this point, however, it’s unclear if the CBA will start back up again or not.
“We’re basically just waiting until June to decide whether we play in July or not,” Lin said Wednesday, via USA Today. “That’s the current situation. We’re kind of in limbo right now.”
The CBA suspended play indefinitely on Feb. 1 amid the coronavirus pandemic, and Lin returned to his home in California. The league called players back in March and initially planned to start back up in mid-April under a modified regular season and postseason in just one or two cities.
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That plan, however, didn’t pan out. At best, a restart would likely come no sooner than July. There were more than 2,500,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide as of Wednesday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and nearly 90,000 in mainland China — where the virus originated late last year.
Until the CBA has a plan one way or another, Lin and others in the league can only wait and see.
With parts of China starting to get back to normal, though, Lin knows how lucky they are to be able to simply practice and play basketball in a gym with other people again.
“Everyone is trying to train hard and prepare themselves for the future,” Lin said, via USA Today. “Everyone also understands we have a chance to play basketball and we have a lot of places where people can’t really leave their houses and can’t really get on a court. So for us to be able to have that, we should be really grateful for it.”
And if the CBA decides to restart without fans, an option floated by officials in leagues across the world, Lin is all for it — no matter how weird that may be.
“I don’t mind it. I love the game,” Lin said, via USA Today. “I want to play. Fans or no fans, that’s not going to impact how I play. It’s not going to affect me. I want to compete and I love the game. I miss it.”
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