Players and coaches had long since left the building. They were still digesting the previous warning — an asbestos scare at Madison Square Garden that forced the postponement of a home game Tuesday night.
Like the fire alarm, the asbestos warning appears to have been unwarranted, and the Knicks will soon resume their normal schedule.
Garden officials announced Wednesday evening that the arena had been deemed safe and that all events would go on as scheduled. The Knicks will play the Washington Wizards there Friday night.
In a statement, the Garden said it had received “assurance from the city and environmental experts regarding the safety of the arena.”
The statement said nothing about asbestos, the word that initially set off concerns after some debris fell from the Garden attic during overnight maintenance Monday. Tests conducted by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and by independent contractors concluded that no asbestos had been released into the arena.
Garden officials, exercising what they called “an abundance of caution,” postponed Tuesday night’s game between the Knicks and the Orlando Magic. The teams are working with the N.B.A. to schedule a makeup date.
The decision to reopen the arena was made by Garden officials alone. The city’s oversight effectively ended once testing concluded that there was no asbestos in the arena.
“It’s essentially in their hands,” Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the D.E.P., said earlier in the afternoon. He added, “There’s no health risk.”
Had the Garden remained closed, the Knicks would have been forced to postpone more home games or play them at another site, probably in New Jersey. Garden officials made initial inquiries with the Prudential Center in Newark, but never made firm plans to play there.
On Wednesday, the Knicks seemed more concerned with cleaning up their offense and their record (1-2) than their aging arena. They lost close games to Boston and Portland last week, outcomes that left them with equal doses of frustration and hope. The tough schedule continues Thursday night in Chicago against the talent-rich Bulls.
So Tuesday’s postponement, however inconvenient, was not all bad. It gave three key players — Anthony Randolph (sprained ankle), Ronny Turiaf (sore back) and Danilo Gallinari (sore wrist) — extra time to heal.
It also allowed the Knicks to avoid, for now, a difficult matchup with Orlando’s Dwight Howard, perhaps the league’s most fearsome big man. The running joke was that the Knicks finally found a way to shut down Howard.
“One of my better coaching performances,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said, chuckling. He added: “It was either Dwight Howard or breathing bad material. It’s a tossup.”
D’Antoni said that his young team might be more ready for the challenge by the time the Knicks see the Magic.
Several players came to the training center to work out or shoot on their own. But the unexpected postponement left them with a free night and an empty feeling.
“It was tough,” Amar’e Stoudemire said. “I mean, we definitely was ready to play, was prepared for Orlando, was geared up, ready to go.”
The players were either headed to the Garden or getting ready to leave their homes when they received word that the game had been postponed. Some players said they just relaxed and watched television. Some watched other N.B.A. games. D’Antoni said he watched game film of the Bulls.
“I wanted to play,” said Gallinari, who is eager to break out of a shooting slump. “I wanted to play the game. That was not good news.”
Gallinari was already on his way to Manhattan when he heard about the incident and decided to keep going. He walked around Central Park, visited the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue (to check out the iPad), then headed to SoHo for dinner at an Italian restaurant.
It was a nice way to spend an evening, just not what he had in mind. Like his teammates, Gallinari had never lost a game to 40-year-old fire retardant.
“Only in New York can that happen,” he said.
