The beauty of the Knicks-Nets rivalry

A few days ago, David Stern sat down with the owners of both the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets and told them to calm down the rivalry between these two NYC teams. Ew.

Why stop a rivalry?

I understand, things can get heated. And I guess Stern doesn’t want anymore “honey nut cheerios” incidents on the court. He doesn’t want anymore Palace brawls. Got it. But, rivalry is important for any sport. It spices things up. Even if both teams are bad, when they meet their rival, they turn up the juice a bit. It’s personal.

And that’s what makes sports rivalries so great. Even the NBA schedule backs that up pitting your team against the other teams of your division four times each. That’s why some people were kinda feeling some kind of way when the Celtics traded their stars to a division rival in the Nets. It’s a business but sometimes you gotta take rivalries in consideration.

So, the beauty of the Nets-Knicks rivalry is that they are both in the same city. And this city is a tough city already. There’s already rivalries between the boroughs in NYC. It’s like mini cities inside of one big city. This rivalry in the NBA goes deeper than the teams. I’ve even seen quite a few instances where Nets fans call the Knicks “Manhattan Knicks” since the Knicks are based there while the Nets are based in Brooklyn. And the team owners and players seem to embrace this. And I think Stern should too. I can’t wait to see these two face each other in the playoffs. I think it would be great.

Let’s hope the fans don’t make a big deal out of it. We’ve heard stories of violence because their team lost to another team and now they’re taking it out on the other team’s fan. And that’s wrong. But our emotions are tied to the sport. That’s really the only way this league survives. There has to be a story. There has to be a behind the scenes battle that translate to the court battle.

What do you think? Was Stern right to pretty much shut down the rivalry? Or should the NBA embrace rivalries?