It’s not just Halloween, the start of the World Series and the upcoming New York Marathon and its festivities. It’s more than the Jets and Giants and the Rangers, Islanders and Devils. It’s the start of the 2015-16 NBA season. Basketball! Imagine the vocals from Kurtis Blow’s song: “They’re playing bas-sket-ball”
NBA Finals champions, the Western Conference Golden State Warriors, out there in Oakland, Calif., opened up the new season for pro ball fans Tuesday night, performing the annual NBA ritual of raising the World Championship banner and receiving chip rings, the bling, in the team’s home arena. Inspiration for the rest of the league’s aspiring champions.
Unfortunately, this season’s opening week festivities have been marred by the surprise passing of Flip Saunders, 60, head coach and president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Although he had just announced that he’d take this season off to solely focus on fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma, considered a curable disease, he passed away a few days later. The NBA Coaches Association announced that coaches will wear a lapel pin in memory of their beloved colleague throughout the season.
Brooklyn Nets forward Thaddeus Young, a key component of this Nets team, who was traded from the Timbs earlier this year for Kevin Garnett, said, “Great man, great coach,” upon hearing of Saunders’ passing. “It definitely was too soon for him to go, and we’re definitely going to miss him. He’s a true pioneer.”
Young, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez are the nucleus of the Nets, who opened their 2015-16 season at home last night against all-star Derrick Rose and rookie head coach Fred Hoiberg at the Barclays Center. Coach Lionel Hollins’ Brooklyn team will then immediately hit the road, visiting the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow (Friday) and the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday, returning to Barclays to play the Milwaukee Bucks Monday night. The Nets are being tested early, from day one. All the teams they face in those first four games were rated as stellar playoff teams last season.