The NBA suspended its season. Rudy Gobert forced the league’s hand by testing positive for coronavirus.
Prior to that diagnosis, the NBA reportedly neared a decision to play games without fans in attendance.
Those seemed to be the only two choices – playing without fans or hiatus.
Not an option: Continuing to play games with fans present. That would have been grossly irresponsible.
Unless you asked the Knicks.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Several teams were willing to put the games on hiatus, but the rest wanted to move toward eliminating fans from arenas to continue playing games, sources tell ESPN. One team wanted to keep status quo until a governmental/public mandate dictated change: The New York Knicks.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 12, 2020
Did the Knicks actually support this plan? Were they actually the only team to support this plan?
I have some skepticism given the anonymity of the sources and how easy it’d be to exploit the prevalent belief that the Knicks are always wrong.
Also: The Knicks haven’t earned benefit of the doubt.