As a student at George Washington University, Ben Metcalf worked as a Washington Wizards ball boy for the same two seasons that the Wizards employed a shooting guard named Michael Jordan. Soon after, Metcalf was an intern in the Orlando Magic video room when they beat the Knicks on opening night — and then lost 19 games in a row.

Metcalf downplayed the novelty of such a distinctive start to his climb in the sport with the claim that “every video guy has the same stories.” Yet it will be harder for him to dispute the idiosyncratic nature of his latest résumé entry: Metcalf, 38, is an American head coach in Taiwan, working in what is believed to be the world’s only widely recognized professional basketball league that is operating during the coronavirus pandemic.

The global health crisis has shut down nearly every league on the basketball map, but not Taiwan’s Super Basketball League. So on Thursday night, Metcalf coached his Taoyuan Pauian Archiland team in an 85-77 loss to Bank of Taiwan, which was led by the former Duke guard Matt Jones with 29 points.

Pauian played again Friday and Saturday in its final two regular-season games and will open the playoffs Tuesday — all of which is taking place in a small gym with no fans in a modest version of the “bubble” environment that the N.B.A. is likely to try to replicate if conditions in the United States allow the resumption of its suspended season.