Report: NBA's chances of return dimming

The NBA's chances of resuming the 2019-20 season due to the global coronavirus pandemic are growing smaller, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said. Speaking late Friday on "SportsCenter," Windhorst said NBA owners are increasingly pessimistic that play will resume this season. As a result, the league and the NBPA are discussing a deal to end the season officially.

"They're not having talks to restart the league," Windhorst said. "They're having financial talks about what would happen if the season shut down and I think there's a significant amount of pessimism right now." The NBA was suspended indefinitely on March 11 after All-Star center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.

The league has been following the movement of the Chinese Basketball Association, which shut down early this year and had hoped to resume play soon. But on Thursday, the Chinese government put an end to that idea. "A big reason was what happened in China where they halted the return of their league," Windhorst said. "They believed if they just tested the players' temperatures all the time that it would work, and the Chinese are finding that asymptomatic carriers are causing a second wave in that country."

--Field Level Media

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