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COVID-19 has upended the world in every way imaginable, and the world of international basketball has faced some unique challenges in the past few months. Since the Coronavirus has been rampant in Europe longer than it has been in the United States, international basketball players have been exposed to the struggles and difficulties of living through a pandemic long before some people in the U.S. might have known. In addition, the influx of American basketball players in other countries means that they have an interesting persepctive. Many players did come home from the countries they played in, but are returning to a situation that could be worse than the country they played in. For the next few months, Ballers Abroad will provide relevant updates on leagues, teams and how American players are impacted by this pandemic. If you have any info or tips, get in touch with us on Twitter or via email.
All news as of April 21, 2020 at 5:00 pm EDT
Domestic League Updates
Adriatic League
The Adriatic League has scheduled a conference call for tomorrow, April 22, to determine whether to resume the league's season at a later date or cancel the season. Croatia, a country that has multiple teams competing in the league, has already canceled its domestic season. (April 21) Spain Liga Endesa has targeted the date of May 31st as the deadline to make a decision on how possibly resume the 2019/2020 season. (April 20) Turkey The Turkish Basketball Federation has agreed to review its current suspension on April 30th to decide further action. Turkish domestic leagues have been suspended since March 20. (April 8) Italy Following an official statement, the seasons of the top two leagues in the country, Serie A and Serie A2, have been canceled. There will be more information on possible relegation and promotion in the coming weeks. (April 7)
Greece
The 2019-2020 Greek League season has officially been canceled, and the league is currently looking for ways to validate their final standings. Play had previously been suspended through March 31st before this decision was made. (April 2) Spain Liga Endesa, or the ACB, has voted to extend the suspension of Spain's top division beyond the previously scheduled date of April 24th. The league will revisit this decision in the coming weeks. (April 2) Slovenia The Slovenian Basketball League has announced an end to the 2019/2020 season. There will be no champion and also relegation to the second division. (April 1) Croatia The Croatian Basketball Federation announced the decision to terminate competitions and end the 2019/2020 season. In the leagues run by the CBF, no champions will be declared or ranked, and in the 2020/21 season, the same clubs that played in the 2019/20 season will appear in the same leagues. (April 1) France LNB decided on came up with the decision to extend the indefinite suspension of Jeep Elite and ProB championships. At the same time ProA U21 championship got cancelled. Jeep Elite and ProB tournaments will remain suspended until further notice. LNB will create working groups to consider all possibilities for the reminder of the season in both championships. (March 31) Countries that have CANCELLED domestic leagues: Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Russian (Superleagues only), Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom Countries that ended seasons but crowned champions: Australia, Estonia/Lativa, Poland, Sweden European League Updates
Euroleague
The league is considering trying to complete the season by playing all the remaining games in one city. Moscow, Istanbul and Athens are some of the available options. (April 2) Basketball Champions League The BCL has announced the league will host a Final Eight tournament this fall. The tournament will be a single-game, knockout-round tournament among the final eight teams in the competition, with two of the eight spots still up for grabs. Those games will be played before the tournament Sept. 30-Oct. 4. (April 1) |
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