NBA Watch: Here's What Happened at the Season's First Game Between the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks

NEW YORK—The Brooklyn Nets hosted the visiting New York Knicks earlier this week in front of a packed Barclays Center crowd. Only it didn’t seem like a home game for the BK squad with blue and orange taking over a significant portion of the arena on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Manila). 

“I thought the atmosphere was great. It felt like a barn burner,” Nets Head Coach Steve Nash said post-game after the first of four games between the crosstown rivals. “Like a big high school game or a big college game. It was a great atmosphere.”

Photo by Mikko Abello.

Welcome to New York, the most densely populated major city in America with a population of 18,823,000 spread across its five boroughs. With that many people of diverse origins, cultures and creeds, you’d figure there’d be enough room for two basketball teams to represent the Empire State. 

But think again. New Yorkers are pretty serious with which home team they pledge allegiance to, and for four times this season, that loyalty will be tested as the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets face off in their own subway series of basketball. 

Which one is NYC’s team, really? On one hand, you have the city’s time-honored ball club, the Knickerbockers, who have been around as long as the league has. They were one of the league’s founding teams in 1946 and the franchise has won two NBA championships, in 1970 and 1973. The ‘90s saw dominant Knicks squads led by stars such as Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and Allan Houston make it to the Playoffs including two Finals appearances but ultimately would just fall short each time.

Nevertheless, the Knicks faithful are probably some of the most loyal fans in the world. Veteran Filipino sports analyst Jinno Rufino, who also happens to be in New York said it best over dinner the night before the game: the Knicks are the NBA’s Ginebra.

“New Yorkers are loyal, rabid people,” Rufino said. “They believe their home is the best place on earth and that includes their beloved sports teams, especially the one that they grew up supporting. It’s part of the Knicks mystique.”

The Nets, on the other hand, started out in New Jersey when they entered the ABA in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans. They relocated to Long Island the following year and were renamed the New York Nets, winning the 1974 and 1975 ABA championships led by its superstar Julius “Dr. J” Erving before being absorbed into the NBA the following season. The nomadic franchise returned to New Jersey in 1977, made two Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003 led by point guard Jason Kidd, and would later relocate to Brooklyn in 2012. The franchise has yet to win an NBA title but the team’s recent acquisition of megastars like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden have catapulted the Nets into instant championship contenders and have revived fans’ interest in what used to just be New York’s B-Team.

The energy in Barclays Center was electric last Tuesday. I’ve always enjoyed watching games there. You can always expect to hear really good hip hop even before tip-off. A bus set up across the street was blaring Notorious B.I.G. two hours before the game began. This is Brooklyn. They’re Brooklyn proud and they always go hard for their borough. The Nets typify the grit of its blue-collar neighborhoods. The crowd appreciates hard work and rewards its guys who play their hearts out each night with boisterous affection. 

A putback slam by James Harden in the third quarter that put the Nets up 72-61 and Harden’s celebration immediately after the dunk had Nets fans absolutely ecstatic. “It might have been the first one in my career in 13 years so I had to let it out,” Harden said. “It wasn’t that great when I looked at the highlights but it felt great and that’s all that matters." 

In contrast to the latter, the Knicks are more Manhattan. “It’s the glitz and the glamour. The Broadway show,” Rufino says. Make no mistake, though. Knicks fans are just as loud.

Exhibit A: Spike Lee sitting courtside letting the refs hear it in his Virgil Abloh designed fuchsia double-breasted suit. “It’s the Knicks even over the Yankees,” Rufino concludes. “It’s a basketball town.”

Photo by Mikko Abello.

The Knicks were ahead at halftime with the slimmest of margins, 61-60, largely due to the heroics of Alec Burks and Derrick Rose who scored 13 and 12 respectively in the first 24 minutes of action, but James Harden was Brooklyn’s answer in the first half with the sweet-shooting guard pouring in 28 points including a trey that hit the 2,500 mark on the NBA’s all-time list of three-pointers made. Harden is currently at number 4 just behind Reggie Miller with 2,560 career threes. Miller, Spike Lee’s nemesis back in the ‘90s, had words for Harden before the game. 

“Reggie’s got me going for sure,” shared Harden. “Ultimate confidence. Best player in the league type vibe. Just that mindset. It was just some good motivation before the game, (which was) something I needed.”

Harden more than made up for Kevin Durant’s lethargic start and would finish with a game-high 34 points. Durant, who shot 2 for 9 from the field in the first half turned it up after the break to finish with 27 points. Burks finished with 25 points while Julius Randle added 24, but the Knicks would falter in the endgame with Brooklyn surviving with a 112-110 win.

“I think the energy’s gonna be there,” said Harden. “That’s one thing about this rivalry. It’s always gonna be there whether it’s here or at MSG. The fans are gonna be cheering for their respective teams and it’s gonna be a good game every time and tonight we’re just happy to come out with the win. We did the things necessary down the stretch to come out with the win on the defensive end.”

Coach Nash added, “We knew it was gonna be a pro-Knicks crowd. I mean the Knicks have been around for 75 years, if I’m not mistaken, and we understand that so it’s an opportunity for our team to rise to the challenge and defend our home court.” 

The crosstown rivalry continues when the Knicks host the Nets in Madison Square Garden on February 16, 2022 before heading back to Brooklyn on March 13 and with a fourth rematch back in MSG to be played on April 6. Rufino predicts Brooklyn getting the better of their rivals. “The Nets are the superior team,” he says. “And on paper, they should win all four games of the season match-up but I’d give the Knicks one of the remaining three games.” 

If you ask me, stats and odds go out the window just like in any rivalry game. I wouldn’t count out Brooklyn especially when it’s New York City they’re playing for. Whatever the outcome, we’re all in for three more exciting ball games between the two boroughs this season.

Mikko Abello is Esquire Philippines' special NBA correspondent.