Knicks 2009-2010 Schedule

The National Basketball Association released this morning each team's schedule for the upcoming season, the league's 64th. While most people jumped up to find out when LeBron was heading to Los Angeles, or when Kobe's slated to play in Beantown, I was more interested in taking a look at the Knicks' upcoming road to perdition. (Spoiler alert: the Knicks don't have a draft pick in next year's draft, and the projected, much-ballyhooed salary cap seems to be getting smaller and smaller with each passing week). Seriously, things don't look good. The Knickerbockers start and finish the season on the road, opening against the Heat in Miami, and topping things off north of the border against the Raptors, a game that may or may not have playoff implications--for about two or three teams not from New York. 

It gets worse. In March and April, just around the time I usually lose complete interest in them, the Knicks face a series of absolutely brutal road trips, including a visit to Texas, followed by a five-game trip to the West Coast. In between, they host the 76ers, the Rockets and the Nuggets. That just seems unfair. See for yourself.

Yikes. That stretch should pretty much put an end to the team's playoff chances, if they even have any after the All-Star Break, which, per usual, arrives in mid-February, right around my birthday.

Surprisingly, though, the powers that be have deemed the Knicks worthy of five nationally televised games, including a Christmas Day contest against the Heat, one of five games scheduled for a national broadcast on Baby Jesus' birthday. Meanwhile, LeBron makes an early appearance at the Garden, on November 6, the Knicks' sixth game of the season. Kobe drops in on January 22. Both games are, of course, nationally televised, because of what happened the last time these two stopped by. I guess the world needs to see the league's two most marketabl stars abuse my Knickerbockers. While we're on the subject, I'm not too crazy about the team's chances of winning any of their games in front of a national audience, which also include home games against the Clippers and the Raptors, in December and January, respectively. It's only August. Is it too early to write off the entire season?