Beijing, China - May 8, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Video interview with Yao Ming in progress
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yao Ming, president, Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) (ending with shots 3-4):
"In general we mapped out three set of plans, one is that we resume with little changes, another is slightly cutting short the season, and the third is we could even go straight to the finals base on the present records. We are closely monitoring the situation to see which plan is suitable. But we are as of now very optimistic, it looks like there's a good chance the season will resume, because the epidemic control situation is getting better."

FILE: Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, east China - December, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. CBA player posters in arena
4. Various of CBA team training

Guangdong Province, south China - May 8, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Zhong Nanshan, Chinese respiratory expert, in conference room for webinar on COVID-19
6. Zhong speaking at webinar
7. Screen showing medical experts attending webinar

Beijing, China - May 8, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yao Ming, president, Chinese Basketball Association (CBA):
"I'm lucky to have help from experts recommended by academician Zhong Nanshan. Many people have also learned during this recent period that Zhong's wife was in fact a player on our national team back in the day. We are grateful to have Zhong providing his help, and experts he recommended provided us lots of professional guidance as we make plans to resume the season."
9. Interview in progress
10. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yao Ming, president, Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) (ending with shot 11-12):
"We need to strictly abide our national anti-epidemic regulations. For foreigners to enter China, whether it be our players, coaches or other staff members, they all need to go through a 14-day quarantine, a nucleic acid test and other procedures. We are also requiring players to train alone for three days beyond that to make sure they can return to their teams in a safe manner. Thus when the season resumes we will be informing our teams 21 days in advance so they have time to get ready."

FILE: Beijing, China - March 7, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of staff checking passengers' travel documents inside Beijing Capital International Airport

FILE: Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, east China - December, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Various of CBA team training

Beijing, China - May 8, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
13. Interview in progress

The 2019-2020 season of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) games halted by the COVID-19 outbreak now looks very likely to resume, according to the league's president Yao Ming on Friday.

The basketball megastar-turned league president told China Central Television (CCTV) in a video interview Friday that the management is optimistic as of now about the resume of the season since the country's epidemic situation has largely been brought under control, but have not decided on how exactly it would happen.

"In general we mapped out three set of plans, one is that we resume with little changes, another is slightly cutting short the season, and the third is we could even go straight to the finals base on the present records. We are closely monitoring the situation to see which plan is suitable. But we are as of now very optimistic, it looks like there's a good chance the season will resume, because the epidemic control situation is getting better," said Yao.

CBA is also careful to make sure the games resume in a safe environment. Yao said when the season resumes, teams will play in empty arenas with only broadcasting crews present. He said the league also has China's top respiratory expert Dr. Zhong Nanshan to thank for in efforts to resume the season.

"I'm lucky to have help from experts recommended by academician Zhong Nanshan. Many people have also learned during this recent period that Zhong's wife was in fact a player on our national team back in the day. We are grateful to have Zhong providing his help, and experts he recommended provided us lots of professional guidance as we make plans to resume the season," said Yao.

International players make up a good portion of CBA teams' rosters. Yao said the league will make sure to give teams enough preparation time to let their international players return in a safe manner.

"We need to strictly abide our national anti-epidemic regulations. For foreigners to enter China, whether it be our players, coaches or other staff members, they all need to go through a 14-day quarantine, a nucleic acid test and other procedures. We are also requiring players to train alone for three days beyond that to make sure they can return to their teams in a safe manner. Thus when the season resumes we will be informing our teams 21 days in advance so they have time to get ready," said Yao.