Taiwan’s semi-professional Super Basketball League (SBL) has officially declared Bank of Taiwan the winners of its curtailed 19th season, which was concluded on Wednesday amid a surge in COVID-19 infections among the players.
Bank of Taiwan were declared the winners after all of the clubs on Wednesday decided in an online meeting to rank the teams based on their records during the regular season.
Bank of Taiwan’s record was 23-8, at the top of the table, with Taiwan Beer’s 21-10 record placing them in second, followed by the Yulon Luxgen Dinos, Jeoutai Technology and Pauian Archiland.
Taiwan Bank head coach Chen Guo-wei said that the league had all of the teams test their players and staff using rapid COVID-19 test kits on Tuesday, after reports that some players from Jeoutai Technology had tested positive a day earlier.
As for Taiwan Bank, four players who had tested negative on Tuesday ended up testing positive on Wednesday, Chen said, adding that the players were sent to have their results confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
Also on Wednesday, two Jeoutai Technology players were confirmed to have COVID-19 after taking PCR tests.
Responding to Taiwan Bank being declared the SBL season winners, Chen said he had been looking forward to the playoffs.
“The journey would have been very precious,” he said.
In related news, Taiwan’s professional basketball leagues, the P.League+ and the T1 League, have said that they would not cancel the remainder of their seasons, but would continue to follow their respective COVID-19 prevention protocols.
All P.League+ players are required to provide a negative result from a rapid COVID-19 test taken no more than 48 hours before each game, the league said, adding that players with a positive result are sent to take a PCR test.
The players are not to mix with teammates while positive and undergoing PCR testing, and if the PCR test is positive, the whole team is sent to take PCR tests, with their games on hold until the results are negative, the league said.
If a player finds out between their 48-hour test and the game that they are a close contact of someone with COVID-19, they must take another rapid COVID-19 test, it added.
All T1 League players must provide a negative result from a rapid COVID-19 test 24 hours before each game, the league said.
If a PCR test confirms that a player has the coronavirus, the team’s games are postponed, the league added.
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