Knicks–Nets Rivalry

Lore & Background

The rivalry began in 1976 when the Nets joined the NBA as part of the ABA–NBA merger. At the time, the team was known as the New York Nets and played at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in suburban Long Island. The team became the New Jersey Nets the following season when they relocated to suburban New Jersey, playing temporarily in Piscataway at Rutgers University before moving to Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford in 1981, their home until 2010. The Nets played their final two seasons in New Jersey at Prudential Center in downtown Newark. The rivalry became an intra-city series when the Nets relocated to Brooklyn in 2012. When the Nets played in New Jersey, the rivalry had several nicknames, including the Turnpike Classic, The Function at the Junction, Battle of the Hudson River, and The War Between the States. After the Nets' move to Brooklyn, due to the close proximity of the two teams and the overall histories of Brooklyn and Manhattan, media outlets have dubbed the rivalry the Battle of New York, Battle of the Boroughs, or Clash of the Boroughs. The two teams have met in the playoffs three times over the course of their history, with the most recent meeting in 2004.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Barclays Center is thick with humidity and anticipation as the final seconds tick away. A sea of blue jerseys chants in unison, their voices echoing off the walls that once housed the circus acts of Madison Square Garden nearby. On the court, a Nets player drives hard into the paint, colliding with a Knicks defender who has guarded this lane for years. The whistle blows, and the crowd erupts—a mix of cheers and groans that feels distinctly New York. It is not just a game; it is a declaration of which borough owns the night.

Reader's Guide

The Knicks and Nets have generally been antagonistic to each other since the beginnings of the Nets franchise. The Nets were originally established in 1966 as a founding member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), to be named the New York Americans, and the league had intended for the team to play at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. The Knicks of the older NBA forced the Armory to back out three months before opening day, forcing the Nets to be left scrambling for a venue with opening day approaching, and it finally settled on the Teaneck Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey. The Nets would continue to be a transient franchise for the remainder of their time in the ABA, unable to establish a permanent home in the Tri-State area until 1972, when they became the basketball tenant of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Upon their transfer to the NBA from the ABA due to the ABA–NBA merger in 1976, the then New York Nets were cited for 'encroaching' on the Knicks' New York City territory at the Nassau Coliseum, and were forced to pay an encroachment fee of US$4.8 million to the Knicks. This fee, along with the NBA expansion fee, made it financially impossible for the Nets, who were the ABA champions in 1976, to retain superstar Julius Erving. The Nets were forced to sell Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers in order to meet their financial obligations, and this move sent the team to a period of mediocrity that took them years to recover from. When the Nets decided to move back to the state of New Jersey in 1977, the Knicks once again became an obstacle and threatened to block the move because it would infringe on their exclusive territorial rights to New Jersey. The Nets responded by suing the Knicks on the basis that their actions violated anti-trust laws. The lawsuit was settled between the teams after the league and the state of New Jersey intervened, and the Nets agreed to pay another $4 million to the Knicks for the rights to move. Between 1977 and 2012, the Nets played in the state of New Jersey as the New Jersey Nets. During that time, the Knicks generally received more media coverage regardless of team records, despite both teams playing in the New York market. When the Knicks traveled to New Jersey to play the Nets, the arena was often evenly split between fan bases. This was partly because the two teams were separated by on

Did You Know?

• The rivalry began in 1976 when the Nets joined the NBA as part of the ABA–NBA merger.
• The Nets were forced to pay an encroachment fee of $4.8 million to the Knicks upon joining the NBA.
• The Nets and Knicks have met in the playoffs three times, with the most recent meeting in 2004.
• After the Nets moved to Brooklyn, media outlets dubbed the rivalry the Battle of New York, Battle of the Boroughs, or Clash of the Boroughs.