Sure, the Brooklyn Nets made the basketball world buzz, but they’re still not the toast of their own town.
NBA legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier told SNY’s Ian Begley on Friday he doesn’t believe Kyrie Irving’s and Kevin Durant’s moves to the Nets will vault them over the New York Knicks in the Big Apple’s basketball pecking order. The superstar duo joined the Nets earlier this month in free agency, spurning the Knicks’ reported interest in their services.
While their decisions surprised Frazier, who played 10 seasons for New York during his Hall of Fame career, he doesn’t fear their arrival will swing most New Yorkers’ allegiances from the Knicks to the Nets.
“I was shocked,” Frazier said. “Tell the truth. I didn’t see that happening. Nobody anticipated that. Early on it was that they were coming to the Knicks. You never know in this league what players are doing and where they’re going.
“Remember, they brought in (Paul) Pierce and the ‘Big Ticket’ (Kevin Garnett) so that didn’t work out. There’s no guarantee that any of this stuff is going to work. But I think it’s still a Knicks town. I can’t see them being more dominant than (Jason) Kidd, when they had K-Mart (Kenyon Martin) and those guys. They got to the (NBA) Finals two consecutive times (in 2002 and 2003) and people were still talking about what was wrong with the Knicks. I think it’s still a Knicks town but they’ve made a lot of progress. New York’s a big city, and I think there’s room for two prominent teams.
Perhaps NBA fans with long memories know best about which teams truly reign in particular cities. But if there’s ever a time that might change in New York, the present seems like as good a bet as any.
