The Knicks closed their Tarrytown training facility Tuesday after three employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The news came just hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio and others warned New York City was on the precipice of a second wave of coronavirus. This just served to drive that point home even further.
While the NBA got through the restart — all the way from the seeding games through the Lakers’ victory in the NBA Finals — without COVID-19 incident, that was with the benefit of the uber-expensive bubble in Disney. But now in the offseason, as numbers spike locally, the Knicks saw three employees — not believed to be players — test positive during routine screenings.
The Knicks training camp will begin Dec. 1.
All three employees are asymptomatic and currently under quarantine, according to the Knicks. But in the meantime, the MSG Training Center has been temporarily closed to allow for a thorough cleaning of the facility.
It was a symptom of the larger issue in New York, and a resurgence of the pandemic locally.
“This is our last chance right now to stop a second wave,” de Blasio warned during Tuesday’s press conference. “If we aren’t able to stop it, there will be clearly lots of consequences that will remind us too much of where we’ve been before.”
New York City saw 795 new cases of the COVID-19 reported Sunday, far surpassing the 550-case threshold that serves as a warning in the fight against the coronavirus.
The positivity rate — which measures how many tests came back positive — has also been going up at an alarming rate. It hit an average of 2.31 percent over the last week, with the 3 percent threshold prompting public schools to close.
Ex-Knick coach Jeff Hornacek will be joining the Rockets as an assistant, according to ESPN.
