If it starts on time
NBA season scheduled to start November 3
Posted: Friday July 24, 1998 09:38 AM
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- If there is a full NBA season it will begin November 3,
according to a schedule released Thursday by the league office.
Should the current lockout affect any portion of the season, the current
schedule would have to be reworked or scrapped. The current collective
bargaining dispute must be resolved before training camps or the season can
start. The owners and players are said to be far apart, but are talking.
Should their dispute go unresolved, games could be lost for the first time
in NBA history.
The current 1998-99 schedule has every team opening its season November 3
or November 4. Opening night would be highlighted by the New York Knicks, who
would play host to Rick Pitino and the resurgent Boston Celtics. That
game would be televised at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
Eleven games are scheduled for the second night. Western Conference
champion Utah Jazz
visits the San Antonio
Spurs at 8 p.m. ET on TBS.
The champion Chicago
Bulls, who might or might not be coached by Tim Floyd and might or
might not have Michael
Jordan, Scottie Pippen
and Dennis
Rodman back in the fold, would open their season November 3 at
Cleveland. Their home opener would be November 4 against Washington.
NBC will feature the Bulls in a Christmas Day doubleheader at 6 p.m. to
kick off its regular-season coverage. The Los Angeles Lakers play
in the second game against Phoenix at 8:30 p.m. ET.
The network has scheduled Chicago 10 other times. Most of those games will
be regionally televised, with one or more other games scheduled to be
broadcast at the same time. Cable networks TNT and TBS will show the Bulls
a total of 15 times on weeknight telecasts.
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