According to Kevin Durant, the New York Knicks are not as cool as the Brooklyn Nets to young NBA players and he might just have a valid point.
Brooklyn Nets Are the Cool Kids
Make no mistake about it, New York is a Knicks town and the Brooklyn Nets are a long way from changing that. When Kevin Durant made his statement about the Nets being cooler than the Knicks, he wasn’t talking about New Yorkers. He was talking about young NBA players around the league.
If you look at things from that perspective, he might just have a valid point. Why would any young player thinks the Knicks were the better franchise? Most of the players in the league now we’re too young to remember when the Knicks were good. They have made a few playoff appearances but for the most part they’ve been bad for several decades.
Knicks Ownership Doesn’t Help
The one thing that the Knicks do not have going for them is the owner James Dolan. HIs mismanagement of the Knicks brand has directly benefited the Brooklyn Nets. Since leaving New Jersey, the Nets have been able to benefit from New York’s growing displeasure with the Knicks owner. To say he is one of the most disliked figures in professional sports is a massive understatement.
During the free agency period leading up to Kevin Durant’s decision, his arrogance was on full display. From getting into it with a fan who said he should sell the team to the strange interviews, he was a mess. The fact that he basically claimed that he had been given assurances that stars were coming to play for his team seems more absurd every time the subject gets revisited. He obviously had not type of assurances. He was making it up and his lack of self awareness led him to believe that stars would simply chose his franchise because of geographical location. In stepped the Brooklyn Nets.
The Brooklyn Nets Are Younger and More in Style
The Brooklyn Nets seem to have a lot more going for them than the Knicks these days. Landing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving has to be the ultimate slap in the face. It would be like the New York Giants getting two superstar NFL players to choose the Jets over them. As impossible as that would seem, at least the Jets have been in town almost as long as the Giants.
The Nets are the new kids on the block and seems like they’ve already taken up a big piece of real estate. There is very little the Knicks can do about what’s happening. They might actually be worse than they were last year and that was really bad. Meanwhile the Nets are on an upward trajectory that shows no signs of slowing down.
The Younger Generation Could Be Swayed
The strangle hold the Knicks enjoy over the metropolitan New York area could only be challenged in one way. The Brooklyn Nets would have to win an NBA championship. If that happens, there would be an entire generation of New Yorkers that have no reason to have any affiliation to the Knicks. Brooklyn isn’t Manhattan but if all of New England can claim the Patriots, you’ll have to forgive people in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx for switching allegiances after all the Knicks franchise has put their adoring fans through.
