There really are two NBA teams in NYC.
In case you never knew that, the Nets - a team from an equally valid borough, Brooklyn - just made a trade with the Atlanta Hawks to give them the kind of payroll pliability to compete with the Knicks as we enter the anarchy of NBA free agency.
In the deal, the Nets are shipping guard Allen Crabbe, his $18.5 million contract, this year's 17th overall pick and a lottery-protected draft pick, to the Hawks. The move cracks open their salary cap space to $46 million. It may not quite match the Knicks' $72 million in cap cash, but it's enough to entice Kyrie Irving to seriously consider Brooklyn this summer. And serious Kyrie is. According to the same report by Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics star has placed the Nets at the top of his wish list, even above the Knicks.
No one is shocked that Irving, a Newark native, wants to play in the Big Apple. But it's the first time in a long time that the Nets trump the Knicks in the sports page, in sports talk, and as a desired destination for big-ticket free agents.
In a most overt feud between franchises, the Nets and Knicks are jousting for their own hardwood fiefdom, and likely want the same two players to make that happen. For months, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have been an implicit package for a team with the roster and cap room to accommodate both, even though the two stars have never played together.
It's an attractive proposition, since both Durant and Irving are NBA champions, and still have some great athletic years ahead of them. Irving, of course, is just as eccentric as he is electric, ending his partnership with LeBron James and demanding a trade after yearly trips to the NBA Finals. Once he leaves Boston, it will be two troubled breakups with two NBA teams with the talent to play deep into the playoffs. You also wonder what the Nets would do with D'Angelo Russell, another point guard who is a gifted scorer. Keeping both players seems redundant.
Then there's Durant. Between his height, wingspan and obscene skill set, he is the jewel of the free agent class. He also may be days from winning his third-straight NBA title. But considering he hopped on an express basketball train that had already been to consecutive NBA Finals, Durant may want to start his own thing far from Oakland. The Warriors star also has epic rabbit ears, so coming to America's media vortex may not suit his sensitivity or sensibilities.
But let's assume Durant - who allegedly just bought a home in Gotham - wants to kickstart a new dynasty in the five boroughs. It's only logical to assume the team that already bagged Kyrie Irving would be more alluring than the team that didn't.
If the Nets, long the forgotten NBA cousins of the Knicks, can somehow land Irving and Durant, then the Nets would be the NBA club of record, and the talk of the town from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Bryant Park. Other than the Jason Kidd-led New Jersey team that reached two NBA Finals, the Nets haven't really mattered since they played in the ABA when Dr. J was making magic with those rainbow-colored basketballs.
Folks probably forgot that the Nets, not the Knicks, reached the NBA playoffs this spring. It's the Nets, not the Knicks, who look like a competent and competitive team. It's the Nets, not the Knicks, with an owner who doesn't meddle in the mechanics of running an NBA organization. It's the Nets, not the Knicks, with a new arena and an underrated aura as an ascending club.
The only reason the Knicks are more important or more often mentioned is their location. The Knicks are the most valuable NBA franchise - despite two 17-65 seasons over the last five years, and no NBA title since the Nixon White House - because they play in midtown Manhattan, inside a building that used to matter. By contrast, the Nets have been basketball nomads, bouncing from Long Island to the Meadowlands to Newark to Brooklyn.
But the Nets are ready to take root and take off. And if they can land the two most gifted players on the market, they can do it at the expense of their crosstown tormentors, which makes it a win-win deal, while making the Nets winners as a team, and the big team in the Big Apple.
Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
