NBA

Knicks-Nets Brooklyn opener will be played Thursday

THE GAME WILL GO ON: Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks will make the trip to Brooklyn tomorrow night to face Deron Williams and the Nets in the first regular-season game at Barclays Center. How many fans will make it, though, remains a mystery. (UPI; Reuters: Getty Images)

Hurricane Sandy couldn’t delay the return of professional sports to Brooklyn.

The NBA announced last night that the Nets’ season opener against the Knicks at Barclays Center tomorrow night will go on as scheduled, despite the devastation the storm left in its wake across the five boroughs Monday.

The game marks the return of major professional sports to Brooklyn for the first time since the Dodgers fled the borough for Los Angeles back in 1957, though its status was in doubt for much of the day yesterday because of the intense damage the storm inflicted throughout the city.

But a Barclays Center official said the arena made it through the storm virtually unharmed, and although a Smashing Pumpkins concert scheduled for tonight has been postponed the Nets are set to practice there today after being off the past two days. The team’s New Jersey practice facility was without power yesterday, as was much of the surrounding area.

The Knicks took Monday off because of the storm, but were back at practice Tuesday evening at their Westchester practice facility. And before he knew the game would go on as scheduled, Carmelo Anthony said that he was hoping it would.

“I hope they don’t [postpone it],” Anthony said. “That would be a monumental game for Brooklyn as an organization, as a borough. And for us to take place in that first game in history, it’d be a fun moment for myself, being from Brooklyn, growing up there, knowing the energy that Brooklyn has right now as a borough. I’m looking forward to that game.”

Now the decision to play the game as scheduled as been made, the question becomes how many fans will be able to make the trip to attend the game. One of the major selling points that both the Nets and arena officials have pushed about their new home is that Barclays Center is accessible by 11 different subway lines, as well as the Long Island Rail Road.

But getting to the arena tomorrow — or, for that matter, to the games there on Saturday and Monday — via public transit is likely to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. While the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges all opened yesterday, the city’s entire subway system has been closed since 7 p.m. Sunday evening, and officials said because of flooding inside of the subway tunnels, it could take up to four or five days before the service is completely restored.

Public transportation has been pushed as the optimal way to get to the arena because of the traffic congestion around the arena’s location at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues and because of the lack of available parking near the arena.