Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets Opener Tonight Postponed Due to Hurricane Sandy

Even in the sports world, the widespread effects of Hurricane Sandy have been felt.

Thursday night's NBA opener between the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn has been postponed, at the behest of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday via the Associated Press.

While the league had still advertised that the game would go on as scheduled despite the damage left by the "Super Storm" that touched down on Monday in New York City and Long Island, the league agreed to cancel after hearing Bloomberg's concerns regarding the still-damaged public transportation systems in the city.

"The bottom line is that there is not a lot of mass transit," Bloomberg said at a news conference at City Hall, the New York Times reported Wednesday. "Our police have plenty of other things to do."

The league had sent a tweet on Twitter Tuesday that the game was still scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m., but confirmed Wednesday that the game was cancelled on their Twitter page with the following message: "At Mayor @MikeBloomberg's recommendation, Thursday's@BrooklynNets home opener vs. the @NYKnicks has been postponed."

Adam Silver, the N.B.A.'s deputy commissioner, told the New York Times in a telephone interview that Tuesday's Twitter message was sent out because "at that moment, the game was on. Games are on until they're not."

He added: "At that moment, so many fans, arena workers and telecasters were waiting on the decision. And at that point, none of us thought there'd be so little mass transportation this far into the week."

The storm that has caused power outages to hundreds of thousands across the city and Long Island and resulted in more than 20 people dead would have created unsafe traffic conditions for those who would have attended the game, city officials have said, as The Barclays Center sits above a subway station and commuter rail terminal. With with most of mass transit still out in New York due to flooding, fans would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to reach their local subway and Long Island Rail Road stations, some of which are still flooded or damaged due to Sandy's devastation.

This comes as a setback to both the Knicks and the Nets. Thursday's game would have marked the historic first NBA game to be hosted at the $1 billion new indoors Brooklyn arena. And there is still no word yet on whether the league will cancel the Knicks' Friday home opener against the defending NBA champion Miami Heat or the Nets' Saturday game against the Toronto Raptors.

Despite the storm, the Knicks held a practice session on Tuesday, where head coach Mike Woodson told the Knicks' NBA web site reporters about the limbo that the team's schedule was now in due to the storm.

"It was tough because I didn't know," Woodson said of the situation. "Yesterday, I was in here at the office, my coaches and I just going over some game tape trying to figure out what we could do in terms of trying to get guys in and practice. We knew it couldn't happen this morning, so we came in as coaches this morning and kept making phone calls and was able to get them in around 5 o'clock."

Knicks star Carmelo Anthony said he was close to the crane that dropped on Monday in Manhattan and team center Tyson Chandler said he was able to see all the power go out in the city from where he was. Marcus Camby was the only player that could not attend Tuesday's practice due to several trees down in his neighborhood.