Getty New York Knicks teammates Mitchell Robinson and Kevin Knox
If you think the Knicks and Nets rivalry in New York City won’t matter this coming basketball season, then you’re surely not woke.
That’s the way the picture was painted Monday night in Manhattan by Knicks guard, Kevin Knox.
Knicks’ Kevin Knox & RJ Barrett dont care about the Brooklyn Nets & getting Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant has added fuel to the fire.
“You’ve got people always saying the Knicks and the Nets,” Kevin Knox told me while on a panel hosted by SNY’s Kazeem Famuyide that discussesd Puma’s new Clyde Hardwood with RJ Barrett and Walt Clyde Frazier.
The Nets and Knicks’ rivalry has only intensified after Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant signed with the Brooklyn Nets.
Many believed that the two were a packaged deal and would sign with the New York Knicks.
No such luck!
Kyrie Irving signing with the Nets made sense. As I reported in February, Irving wanted to sign with Brooklyn.
A West Orange, New Jersey native, Irving grew up liking the then-New Jersey Nets when they ran the NBA’s Eastern Conference during the days of Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson.
Irving was a fan of Kidd.
“Watching him play was a pleasure,” Irving told me of Kidd when he was hired as head coach of Brooklyn back in 2013.
“His IQ. Just watching the way he plays the game. Not many people have that niche and that feel for the game.”
As a kid, Irving watched that Nets team make back to back trips to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. Ironically, the Nets were coached by Byron Scott who lived in Livingston, NJ; a town next door to West Orange.
Scott would later coach Irving earlier in his career with the Cavaliers.
Durant had ties to the Knicks organization.
His business partner, Rich Kleiman grew up a huge Knicks fan.
Durant also mentored Knicks forward, Allonzo Trier in high school, is the godfather to the daughter of Knicks assistant coach, Royal Ivey and is also close friends with DeAndre Jordan, now a former Knick who ultimately signed with the Brooklyn Nets.
None of that really matters at this point and Kevin Knox says that Knicks head coach David Fizdale has rallied the troops and encouraged his Knicks to stay focused.
“Like [coach David Fizdale] told us all in a group message, put your head down and just go out and play hard for one another,” Kevin Knox told me during the Puma panel.
“That’s kind of been our motto this whole summer.
“Our goal is to go at each other in practice and then when you go against somebody else, go at them, no matter who’s in front of you. That’s been our mindset this whole summer. Fiz just basically has been feeding us all motivational stuff, just keep your head down, no media, social media, Instagram, none of that. Go out there and play for one another.”