NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the suspension of the 2019-20 regular season on Wednesday night after Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test. At this point, it’s not clear when it will be safe to play again. Some reports have indicated that this campaign could run all the way into July, or even August. Others, including some league executives, are skeptical about the chances of it resuming at all.

According to Ben Golliver of The Washington Post, some NBA officials are concerned about the hasty proliferation of the coronavirus. They fear the effects of cases increasing exponentially in the coming weeks:

“I’ve seen models that are super scary,” one executive said. “There could be 70,000 cases in one city alone within six weeks. Our decisions have to be driven by science and the numbers, and our priority has to be safety. I would love for this to slow down and we can play a truncated regular season and playoffs, but it just seems unfeasible.

“I don’t understand how we are back playing in the short term. As a society, we won’t be willing to take the authoritarian steps that China took to slow the transmission rate. This could be a three- to five-month process, and that could mean we are looking at relaunching next season.”

Another NBA executive echoed these thoughts:

“If it’s not safe to play games today,” another high-ranking executive added, “why would it be safe in two months when all the charts say [the spread] will be much worse?”

The 2020-21 campaign could also be impacted by this suspension, which is currently set to be for 30 days but will almost certainly be longer, as these executives posit.

In addition to Gobert, Donovan Mitchell also tested positive for COVID-19. In an attempt to limit the spread of this virus, several sporting leagues around the globe have decided to follow in the NBA’s footsteps by postponing or flat-out canceling events.