The NBA is Creating ‘Contingency Schedules’ in Case There is a Season


The NBA’s schedule maker, Matt Winnick, is keeping himself busy these days creating different, potential game schedules for all 30 teams, just in case there’s a regular season at all in 2011-’12. The NY Post investigates: “The NBA is misleading the public and media by keeping schedules on each team’s websites, with the league potentially resuming games on Nov. 16. It has even led to misinformed media reports. Even if the lockout is settled Monday, the Knicks may not open in Denver and the Nets in Oklahoma City on Nov. 16. The Post has reported that over the last two months NBA schedulemaker Matt Winnick has designed a handful of contingency schedules including 74-game, 70-game, 60-game and 50-game schedules, based on arena availability. Many of those schedules looking nothing like the original 82-game version. ‘It’s not like the preseason where you just lop off games and pick it up,’ one source said. Why the NBA has chosen to keep the schedules up on the team websites in that form is unclear. It’s probably because the alternative is taking down the schedule completely. With the proposed new schedules, many of the home games for each team could still be on the same dates, but against different clubs. In fact, even though the Knicks have lost their home opener vs. Miami on Nov. 2, there is still a good chance they play Miami all four times in the unlikely event that the lockout settles soon. The games lost mostly will be interconference games, according to two sources. The 1998-99 lockout-shortened 50-game season contained six East vs. West games on teams’ schedules.”