Knicks Nets: A Rivalry is Refueled

Whether we are talking about the Lakers vs Celtics in the NBA or the Yankees vs the Red Sox in baseball, rivalry games are some of the most hard fought, and talked about matchups every year.   What today’s sports fans may not remember is that, long before Pedro Martinez threw Don Zimmer to the ground, or Magic versus Bird, there was Duke Snider and Mickey Mantle, Dem Bums and The Pinstripes, we had the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

Brooklyn has not had a professional sports team to call their own since their beloved Dodgers were moved out to Los Angeles by Walter O’Malley following the 1957 season, just two years removed from a World Series title.  The Dodgers and Yankees met in the World Series four times in the 1950’s, with Brooklyn’s lone World Series coming in 1955.  As the story goes, soon after O’Malley moved the team west, a Brooklyn fan was asked, if you had a gun with two bullets in a room with Stalin, Hitler and Walter O’Malley, who would you shoot?  The answer: O’Malley, twice.  We know the potential for a passionate fanbase exists in Brooklyn, and ever since the Barclays Center opened its doors, Brooklyn sports fans have been ready to once again show their devotion to the borough they call home.

Brooklyn now has a full year under its belt as a basketball town, and owner Mikhail Prokhorov is sticking to his promise of a championship within his first five years (and really does not want to get married). The Nets pulled off a blockbuster trade with the rival Boston Celtics this offseason, landing Celtics all time greats Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett (along with Jason Terry) for draft picks and other moveable pieces. This move not only makes the Nets legitimate title contenders, but also adds plenty of fuel to the fire that is the Knicks Nets rivalry. The Celtics and Knicks have recent history of bad blood, most notably between Kevin Garnett and Carmelo Anthony.

But Brooklyn was not done there. They also were able to snag Andrei Kirilenko, the former Jazz swingman and teammate of D-Will for far less than his market value. These moves leave many critics to believe that the Nets (with Jason Kidd as head coach) are no longer the lesser of the two New York teams, leaving the Knicks looking up at their new neighbors. So in an effort to grab some headlines away from Brooklyn this offseason (and improve the roster), the Knicks traded for the underachieving but talented center Andrea Bargnani from the Toronto Raptors. Bargnani will be able to stretch the floor with his three point shooting, but his defense is suspect at best and he comes with another huge contract.

Luckily for New Yorkers (and the rest of the country), the NBA has spread out the matchups between these two teams this year. The first “Battle of the Boroughs” will be Nets vs Knicks, Barclays Center, December 5. This game will be followed by Nets v Knicks at MSG on January 20th. In the final month of the regular season the the two teams will meet twice, once on April 2nd at MSG, and in the second to last game of the season on April 15th at the Barclays Center. These final two games have the potential to have playoff seeding at stake, which would make for the most intense regular season basketball of the season. You can be apart of the action live by checking out tickets and current prices for all for games below: