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I dunno about y’all, but I sure could go for some New York Knicks basketball right about now. Sadly, we won’t see our beloved ‘Bockers play meaningful basketball for quite some time...and nobody seems sure of when that time will come.
We know that the original planned start date for the 2020-21 season (Dec. 1) is officially out the window. Some are still hoping for a Christmas start date, but that seems unrealistic now that the league has pushed the 2020 Draft back until Nov. 18.
Marc Berman of The Post heard from a source that the season is unlikely to start before January 2021, with Martin Luther King Day a possibility. However, the league hasn’t ruled out starting in February or even March. That would make it essentially one year without Knicks basketball. Lame!
And what would next season even look like? Will the NBA try to recreate the bubble environment that has been so successful in stopping the coronavirus, or will they get greedy like the NFL and try to pack some fans into arenas? You can always bet on greed, baby!
According to Sham Charania, the league is hoping to play games in home arenas next season, with a schedule similar to what MLB did this season — teams mostly play their geographical neighbors to cut down on travel.
“In-market competition with reduced travel”
— Jonathan Macri (@JCMacriNBA) September 11, 2020
That sounds like teams playing a whole lot more games against teams that are very close to them, which for New York would mean...Brooklyn, Philly, Boston and Washington?
This should be interesting. https://t.co/GIjVqbOxYp
The closest teams to New York — Brooklyn, Philly, Boston — all figure to be playoff teams next season. Maybe we get lucky and the league includes the Wizards, who are closer than our Atlantic Division foes, the Raptors. Either way, the Knicks could be looking at an unbalanced NBA schedule in which they face the toughest foes of any Eastern Conference squad.
I hope Leon Rose and the front office stay plugged in to this news. If the league is playing a funky schedule and the Knicks get a tougher slate, it might be wise to just punt on the season and keep their powder dry for 2022. That would suck, but at least we would finally be able to watch our Knicks lose again.