Nets HC Opens Up About Knicks Rivalry

The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets will always have some sort of animosity for each other, as the two teams are separated by about five miles. The all-time regular-season series favors the Knicks, who have a 109-107 record against Brooklyn.

Recently, New York has had an eight-game winning streak over Brooklyn, winning the first two matchups this season. The Knicks defeated the Nets on Nov. 15 on a Jalen Brunson game-winner, 124-122, followed by a 10-point victory two days later on Nov. 17, 114-104.

Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez recently spoke on the Knicks-Nets rivalry in an interview with New York Post columnist Steve Serby. Fernandez was first asked about the future of the rivalry, and what it could become.

“I think rivalries are amazing, and the one thing is as long as it’s with respect.,” Fernandez said. “You always have to be able to shake hands to be kind and polite to each other, but if you can beat them by 40, better than by 20. And they should feel the same way about us.”

Fernandez witnessed the intensity of the rivalry firsthand, as Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith and Knicks forward OG Anunoby got into an altercation on the Nov. 15 game. The scuffle happened during the fourth quarter and required coaches to separate the players.

Fernandez was then asked about a future in which the Knicks-Nets rivalry could excite basketball fans around the NBA. The head coach envisions that day.

“Yeah. … Obviously we’re in a process right now, and our goal is not to look at the Knicks,” Fernandez said. “You should not care about the Knicks. We should care about ourselves, about taking the proper steps of what we’re trying to build, about what we represent, and how we want to do those things, right?”

“We have a vision now, the vision comes from ownership through management and the coaching staff, and the vision of being the team that we want to be and a certain style of play and how we want to compete … having success and sustaining success so at one time, if it happens that both teams are very, very, very good, that would be extremely cool, right? Fun. Two teams in the same city to fight for big things, that would be awesome.”

It’s tough to see the rivalry fully develop on a national scale when the Nets are going through a rebuild. There was much more animosity in the early 2020s when both Brooklyn and New York were playoff teams. However, now the rivalry favors the Knicks.

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