From the possibility of no season to maybe a full 82 to maybe no season again and now there’s talks of a 78-game season. Â The kicker is a deal has to be struck by next weekend so games can begin in December. Â Read more after the jump.
The revised schedule listed yesterday on the Knicks’ website is as misleading as NBA commissioner David Stern’s optimistic tone Thursday night. Â Following Stern’s hatcheting of November’s games following another NBA negotiation breakdown, coach Mike D’Antoni’s club’s season-opener is now listed as Milwaukee on Dec. 2 at the Garden, beginning a 68-game slate.
Even if there are no further cancellations and if the sides settle next week, the list and number of games on team websites are inaccurate.
Stern proclaimed officially Friday there is no longer a chance of squeezing in an 82-game schedule with a Dec. 1 starting date. However, multiple sources predict a 78-game slate will be staged if the sides compromise on the revenue split by next weekend. The final schedule has to be an even number, sources said.
“Anything is possible,” one union source said. “If the handshake is a week later, it’s a week less of games.”
As The Post reported earlier this month, the schedule does not pick up where it leaves off on the original document. Several contingency schedules have been compiled by NBA schedule-maker Matt Winick, pending the season’s starting date. The schedule is made from scratch, pending the availability of arenas. Many dates are the same, but opponents have changed. Any lost games for the Knicks would be West Coast opponents, according to sources.
With a 78-game schedule still possible, the 16 games the Knicks lost in November, including their six-game West Coast trip, is just a theoretical number. Many of those games would be made up if a deal is hatched soon and Carmelo Anthony’s Nov. 16 return to Denver — which technically got wiped out Friday — likely would be restored later in the season.
Anthony said recently he was worried his Denver return “would go up in flames.” He said he’s looking forward to his return despite being a Rocky Mountain villain.
“I can’t shy away from that,” he said. “I’ve got to deal with it.”
For the first time, Stern said Friday he guaranteed an 82-game schedule would be arranged if there had been a settlement that day. The players are desperate to ensure an 82-game season so they would not lose any more paychecks. (They’re already short on missed preseason games.) The 82-game theory was the carrot Stern dangled to the Players Association to compromise on the revenue-split stalemate Friday. Stern could continue to dangle that carrot by offering up a healthy 78-game season in further talks. Sources said none have been scheduled.
“We had quite openly discussed with the players that if we could make the deal, we could get the season in,” Stern said.
The plan in the revised 82-game scheme were to play a small handful of back-to-back-to-back nights and more four-games-in-four nights, which is done anyway. Stern would have pushed back the end of the regular season to late April and perhaps not stagger as many off days during the playoffs. Also, Stern was willing to schedule a potential Game 7 of The Finals only a few days before the NBA Draft. All that could still take place to squeeze in 78 games.
The players now will miss their regular paychecks for the first time, but union director Billy Hunter said they have received an ancillary check in August and the first week of November, income derived from the escrow account and a luxury-tax giveback. Hunter said the minimum amount – pending the salary – was $100,000.
“They have not missed a paycheck, that’s the misnomer,” Hunter said. “The first [regular] paycheck they’d get was Nov. 16.”
