Debby Wong-USA Today Sports
There’s an enormous amount of buzz in New York City right now.
All of it has to do with the second-round postseason battle the New York Knicks have found themselves in with the Indiana Pacers.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets remain in the corner, mostly neglected after their disappointing Game 7 first-round loss to the Chicago Bulls.
All the hype that surrounded the Nets move from New Jersey to the same city as the beloved Knicks is essentially gone. In fact, no matter what the Nets accomplish in Brooklyn, even if it’s winning their first NBA championship or two, before the Knicks win their first since 1973, they will never receive the same type of recognition that the boys on Broadway have always been given by fans and media alike.
The three major sports in the Greater New York area have always witnessed an effect where one specific team has a stranglehold in terms of likability and usually coverage.
Hockey isn’t included in this discussion because even though the New York Rangers have been much more relevant in recent years, there was that period between 1980 and 1983 that the New York Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups and made people forget all about the Rangers.
It’s a much different story in baseball, however. The New York Yankees will always have the upper hand, not because they existed decades before the New York Mets, but because 27 world championships pummels two any day of the week.
Then there’s the gridiron. With four Super Bowl titles to the one the New York Jets have under their belt, the New York Giants will always be superior unless the Jets somehow find a way to catch them, which seems unlikely given the day-and-night differences in the way each organization is run.
Finally, there’s what we’ve always seen in basketball. NBA titles in 1970 and 1973 for the Knicks, combined with stints in much smaller markets of Long Island and New Jersey for the Nets, have always made the Nets the kid brother. Despite the Nets having the more recent Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003, it’s the 1999 trip made by the Knicks that is remembered with a lot more clarity.
The Nets basically have no chance of ever becoming the most important team in New York, simply because most people from Brooklyn grew up Knicks fans, anyway. That market is nowhere near as big as it was made out to be coming into this season.
Because of this, if the Nets were to win a championship or two, the effect it would have on the league wouldn’t be even remotely close to the kind the Knicks would have.
Who know? At this point, maybe in New York it’s just something about having your team name end with “-ets.”
Mike B. Ruiz is a Brooklyn Nets writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikebruiz and “Like” him on Facebook.
