We’ve tried. We really have. This is the 50th season that the Knicks and the Nets have shared the Atlantic Division of the NBA. You would think that by now there could be some kind of rivalry between the two. It shouldn’t be a lot to ask.
This is a basketball city, isn’t it? Maybe it was harder to sell when the Nets were on Long Island, or in Piscataway, or in East Rutherford, or in Newark. The Nets took that 35-odd-year sojourn around the suburbs and nothing could ever quite take.
But Brooklyn vs. Manhattan?
That should matter, shouldn’t it? That should be sellable. These four games they play every year should be holy wars, secular basketball crusades, two games at the Garden, two at Barclays, and let the buildings crackle like the Philly schools when they gather to play their Big Five City Series.
But it doesn’t matter. And in fact, you could argue that it’s never mattered less. The Knicks woke up long enough to ease to a 113-100 win at Barclays on Monday night. It was their second road win of the season. But all day, in the hours leading up to this game, there was a caveat that always comes with these games at Barclays.
Technically, it’s a road game.
And that’s a sad truth. There were 18,019 people at the game. That’s a sellout. There were 10,000 Knicks fans there. That’s an issue. It is. You get some Yankees invaders at Citi Field, and vice versa, but never enough to carry the day. Sometimes Rangers fans can infiltrate at UBS or at Prudential Center; you are never confused who the home team is.
Jalen Brunson reacts during the Knicks’ Nov. 24 win against the Nets. Charles Wenzelberg
You are here. You keep waiting for that to change. You keep waiting for the teams to be good at the same time, but that’s never worked out. Somehow, in their 50th year sharing a market, they have played exactly 10 playoff games against each other, each winning five apiece, in only three series: 1983 (2-0 Knicks), 1994 (3-1 Knicks) and 2004 (4-0 Nets).
Valuable prizes if you remember one thing from any of them.
This is what Nets coach Jordi Fernández had to say after the game: “The energy was there, but as the game went on I thought our energy and purpose started to fade.”
Jalen Brunson attempts a shot during the Knicks’ Nov. 24 win over the Nets. Charles Wenzelberg
This is what Knicks coach Mike Brown had to say after the game: “While they’re going though this process, you can watch the last couple of games, they’re playing hard. You could see the marked improvement they’ve had since we’ve last played them.”
Look, Brown is Fernández’s mentor and Fernández is Brown’s protégé, so you’re probably never going to see the equivalent of Rex Ryan covering the Giants Super Bowl logos with a black curtain before a 2011 game at MetLife Stadium. The closest there’s ever been to any real rancor was 1993, when John Starks broke Kenny Anderson’s wrist.
(Of course at least half the Meadowlands was occupied by Knicks fans that day, so the reaction was far more muted than it should have been.)
The worst part is, it’s actually possible that we’re in the midst of the least interesting era of a thoroughly uninteresting non-rivalry. Monday was the Knicks’ 12th straight win over the Nets, which corresponds with the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson-led rise since 2022. But immediately before that, the Nets had won nine in a row and 13 out of 15 — corresponding nicely with the Nets’ brief window of the Kevin Durant/Kyrie Irving partnership.
Here’s the worst part, when you really think about it:
What’s happening on and off the Garden court
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The most memorable game the Knicks and Nets have ever played against each other was probably an exhibition game on Oct. 18, 1975. The Knicks were just coming off the greatest stretch in their history and still had Clyde Frazier, Pearl Monroe and Bill Bradley; the Nets would soon win their second ABA title in three years and had the great Julius Erving at the peak of his powers.
Dr. J scored 33 points, including a 25-footer with two seconds to play. Afterward he crowed, “There’s a new No. 1 in New York!” It was a nice sentiment. It never happened. Not then, not now. Knicks-Nets that night 50 years ago at Madison Square Garden, drew 7,723 fans. That sounds about right.