NEW YORK — NBA Commissioner David Stern is hoping for some renewed “sparks” in the Knicks-Nets rivalry once the Nets move to Brooklyn next season.
“I am hoping for more sparks, a few verbal, some buildup,” Stern said Wednesday at the NBA Draft Lottery. “We are going to have two spectacular new buildings in New York City and we are going to have two very aggressively managed teams.”
While the Knicks have a trio of stars in Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler, plus international sensation Jeremy Lin, to play in the renovated Madison Square Garden, it remains unclear just who will be on the Nets roster at the Barclays Center.
Will Deron Williams stay? Will Dwight Howard come? Will the Nets land a lottery pick on Wednesday night?
“We are awaiting the summer to see how the Nets fulfill their assurances and their aspirations, but we have seen the Knicks moving up quite a bit, and I think that we are going to have, you know two, sold-out arenas, not just for games against each other, but for all games,” Stern said.
If he does go to Brooklyn to see the Nets, Stern said he’ll ride public transportation instead of drive out there.
“I’ve been out to Brooklyn,” he said. “It’s going to be kind of interesting. I’m not sure how much I’m going to drive there but I’m going to get there and it’s probably easier not to drive.”
Stern pointed out that Brooklyn will become the “fifth-largest market” in the NBA and harkened back to the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers as reasons why the Nets could succeed there instead of New Jersey.
“You know what’s interesting, it’s Brooklyn, New York, but I consider it could be Brooklyn, USA,” he said.
“And the Brooklyn Diaspora is incredible, at all levels of corporate society and life, and there are lots of people, not just Howard Schultz, who are looking forward to going back to a game in their home borough, so to speak.
“So I think there’s going to be a real conversation and there are lots of baseball fans that see the Brooklyn Nets as a legitimate successor to the Brooklyn Dodgers. So, yes, I think that we are going to have a great rivalry.”
