One of the interesting things about sports in a COVID-19 world is determining who is essential and who is not, for attendance purposes.

Here in Philadelphia, sports media was given clearance to join the players, coaches, and other necessary personnel during gamedays at Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and Subaru Park. No locker room access, but they were allowed in the stadiums. The Sixers and Flyers finished out their seasons in pseudo-hermetically-sealed bubbles, so local basketball and hockey writers haven’t been to a game in a long time.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, media will be allowed at the Wells Fargo Center for the Sixers’ preseason opener, but the New York Knicks are putting the kibosh on scribe attendance, as explained here by the New York Post:

The Knicks are banning media from the Garden for their two preseason games Wednesday and Friday – both against the Cavaliers. The club could reconsider for the regular season but for now the ban is indefinite.

…

The NBA gave teams the option and gave no guidelines on selectivity. James Dolan’s franchise will still allow his MSG Network broadcasters inside – Mike Breen, Walt Frazier and sideline reporter Rebecca Haarlow.

“We continue to make health and safety our top priority,” the Knicks stated in an email. “Given the rise in COVID-19 cases, media will not be permitted in arena for pre-season games.’’

I’m on record saying that sports media is non-essential and that we certainly do not need to be at these events. Given the seriousness of the pandemic, we’re more than capable of taking a back seat, watching the games on TV, and then speaking with the coaches and players via video conference afterward. It’s how we’ve functioned for almost nine months now.

The question in this case is whether there’s an ulterior motive here. Do the Knicks want to use COVID as a way to limit media access that will never be restored? They could very easily try to leverage this situation into keeping pesky journalists out of the building and away from their pitiful and underperforming team.

It’s an intriguing topic. We haven’t been inside a locker room in many moons. That has seemed to have a slightly adverse effect on original reporting, since writers aren’t getting those good 1v1 or scrum quotes based on actual human interaction. We’re all somewhat limited in how we can communicate right now.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise for Knicks writers, who don’t have to watch that slop in person.