Nine-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony is just like you—assuming you, too, believe the New York Knicks will begin their season or play on Christmas Day against the Chicago Bulls.
Per The Wall Street Journal‘s Chris Herring:
Melo, on if it's almost a guarantee Knicks will either open season vs Bulls, or play them on Christmas, after FA moves: "One of those two."
— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) July 28, 2016
This seems like a given, although the Knicks and Bulls probably won’t square off on the NBA’s first night of action. The league typically sets aside two nationally televised games, neither of which is a Finals rematch, thereby eliminating the possibility of a Golden State Warriors-Cleveland Cavaliers tilt.
But you have to figure both the Warriors and Cavaliers still get air time that night, in two separate sparrings. Maybe the Cavaliers will be scheduled against the Bulls or Knicks, in which case Chicago and New York wouldn’t play each other to begin their seasons.
Christmas Day, however, feels like a lock. It wouldn’t be the first time the Knicks and Bulls meet during the 2016-17 campaign, but you can drum up midseason interest by catering to the “Which team has a better record?” narrative.
The Knicks, after all, have two former Bulls cornerstones on the roster in Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, plus Anthony himself, who nearly signed with them in 2014. And the Bulls replaced Rose with Rajon Rondo, another polarizing figure. They also poached Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat, in a shocking turn of events. He was at one point considering the Knicks as a free-agency destination as well.
Storylines abound between these two squads, and the league will take advantage of them—almost certainly at the beginning of 2016-17, but most definitely during the Christmas Day slate.
