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.