Knicks vs. Nets Will Be Must See TV!!!!!

After joining The NBA, The Nets settled into The Garden State of New
Jersey and continued to be the little brother to The Knicks. The Knicks
had Broadway while The Nets had the swampland of The Meadowlands. The
Knicks held a winning streak over The Nets at Madison Square Garden so
long that it spanned from Michael Ray Richardson’s gold tooth to Patrick
Ewing’s huge knee pads. The Nets dropped a pair of playoff series to
The Knicks in the 80s and 90s as they could never shake that little
brother label.

The Nets then shocked the basketball world by acquiring All-Star point
guard Jason Kidd from The Phoenix Suns in 2001. Kidd immediately changed
the fortunes of the franchise as they were only known for “fake crowd
noise” and consistently drafting early in The NBA Draft. In Kidd’s first
two seasons with The Nets, the team reached The NBA Finals. In the
process they finally stole the back pages of the local newspapers away
from The Knicks. They also won a playoff series against The Knicks for
the first time in franchise history by sweeping them in the first round
in 2004. The Knicks were no longer the big dog in the neighborhood.

Now in 2012, The Nets have opened up shop in Brooklyn and the rivalry
that was once separated by The Hudson River has shifted to The East
River. Nets owner Mikhail “The Billion Dollar Man” Prokhorov purchased a
majority stake in the team in 2010 and famously stated that “his team
would win a championship within five years”. This brash talk culminated
in The Nets putting up a billboard by The Garden while The Knicks
countered by putting up a billboard by The Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Both teams will enter next season shelling out luxury tax payments to
The NBA as they have two of the higher payrolls in basketball. Both
teams have multiple All-Stars on their rosters as The Nets have point
guard Deron Williams and shooting guard Joe Johnson while The Knicks
have forwards Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. An interesting twist
is that Kidd who is The Nets franchise leader in assists in now a
member of The Knicks. What is also helping the rivalry is that some
Knick fans who were on the fence about team loyalty are hopping on The
Nets bandwagon. Some Knick fans are fed up with team owner James Dolan
especially in the way that he handled the pursuit of former Knick and
current Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin. Some fans have been
turned off by the perceived arrogance of Dolan and the way that he is
running the franchise and they see that the grass appears to be greener
on the other side of the fence with The Nets.

Having two professional sports franchises in the same league is nothing
new for New York City. The Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New
York Yankees all battled each other in Major League Baseball with The
Yankees usually coming out on top in The World Series which is why they
have 27 titles. Both The Dodgers and Giants saddled up and headed West
to California in the 50s. Currently The Yankees take on The New York
Mets in The Subway Series and in 2000 both teams made The World Series.
In all cases mass transit was the key to get from each stadium. The
distance between Barclays and The Garden is only four stops on some
train lines on The New York City Subway.