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Hurricane Sandy doesn’t stop NBA opening night, league “assessing” games later in week

East Coast Begins To Clean Up And Assess Damage From Hurricane Sandy

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is flooded after a tidal surge caused by Hurricane Sandy, on October 30, 2012 in Manhattan, New York. The storm has claimed at least 16 lives in the United States, and has caused massive flooding across much of the Atlantic seaboard. US President Barack Obama has declared the situation a ‘major disaster’ for large areas of the US East Coast including New York City, with wide spread power outages and significant flooding in parts of the city. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Getty Images

By luck of the scheduling gods, the devastation of Hurricane Sandy left the NBA’s opening night alone. The NBA has games going on in Cleveland, Miami and Los Angeles, all well away from the huge storm.

But other games this week — specifically the Knicks at the Nets opening the Barclays Center in Brooklyn — could be impacted.

Here is the word direct from Tim Frank, Senior Vice President, Basketball Communications, for the NBA:

For the many asking:Tonight’s NBA games will be played. We are still assessing the situation with regards to the rest of the week.

— Tim Frank (@tfrank14) October 30, 2012


Wednesday night there are games in Philadelphia — a region that saw considerable damage and has had a lot of power outages — and Toronto.

Thursday night is the game in Brooklyn, another area hard hit by Sandy — the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was flooded as were parts of the New York Subway system, not to mention considerable other damage. Power in the area and the ability of fans to get to the game will play some role in the league’s decision. The Knicks play the Nets in a game of tremendous local interest but also on national television.

That said, it seems unlikely a game is cancelled 48 hours from now. We will see.

And for all the PBT readers in the Northeast, hope you are dry and safe through this experience.