Is the NBA Planning Neutral Site Regular Season Games?

Right now, the All-Star Game is the only NBA event played at a neutral site, but might that be changing? The league released its schedule for the 2008-09 season yesterday, and while we discussed many of the interesting intricacies surrounding the league's docket, there was one especially tantalizing piece of information that was floating around our inboxes: the fact that there were games that appeared to be scheduled at neutral sites.

On the initial schedule that was posted, the league had several games being played in locations other than the home team's city, on two separate dates: February 27th and April 15th. Henry at TrueHoop has the details, and even furthers the speculation by noting that some of the teams in question seem to be playing in close geographical proximity to the neutral sites on the dates surrounding these contests:

Furthering the intrigue, check out your team's schedule around those dates. In some cases (but not others), teams will be near their alleged neutral site locations on those dates. For instance, the Magic are in New York on February 25, and Philadelphia on February 28. A game in D.C. on February 27 would make a lot of sense, and that's what the original schedule said. (Now it has Dwight Howard and company flying all the way down to Orlando in between.)

I don't know about you, but I think it would be awesome to see two random teams play a regular season game in my city. Just not on April 15.

That's the final day of the regular season, and if my home team has playoff seeding on the line and they're playing in another city, well, that would be bad. But making it happen in say, the first game after the All-Star break or something, I think would be a very interesting experiment.

Of course the league said there was nothing to it, that it was simply a "glitch" in the schedule. Which is totally believable, considering the fact that they also listed a couple of games "@ Seattle." But there's also the possibility that this was another accidental leak of information, and if that was the case, those will be a couple of very intriguing nights in the NBA.