The Chinese government has put strict restrictions on the resumption of team sports, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, dealing a significant blow to the return of basketball in the Chinese Basketball Association and potentially the NBA as well.

This comes on the heels of the CBA delaying a planned resumption of its regular season since it came to a halt in January due to the spread of the coronavirus. Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, and China had planned to resume activities now that the infection curve had leveled off, but things aren't going as planned.

Japan's restart only lasted two days before a player and a referee (in two separate games) had a cough and fever, respectively — worrying signs for a league that thought it was in the clear.

Korea's attempt to restart operations was trumped over a meeting, deciding instead to cancel its season.

Much like Korea and Japan, China had seen the number of infections trend down in recent weeks, but saw new cases coming from overseas. That presented enough of a problem to make the CBA think twice, considering it allowed some of their international players under contract to resume the season. Many of those players had flown back home during the hiatus.

The Chinese government plans to soon release official numbers of those found to be asymptomatic — a statistic that had never been publicly seen. China is also encouraging people to remain active by doing exercise on their own.

Considering most Asian countries are weeks, if not months, ahead in dealing with the outbreak of COVID-19, this could present an issue for the NBA, which is also waiting to resume its season.

There is no set timeline for the resumption of NBA basketball or any other sport in the United States, but if the crisis in China is any indication, it might not be anytime soon.