The Brooklyn Nets are already taking a dig at their crosstown rival, the New York Knicks, with a planned Kyrie Irving promotion.
And so it begins. The rivalry between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets is building. The Nets swooped in and signed the Knicks’ two biggest offseason targets—Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Now, Brooklyn is planning to rub a little salt in that wound. According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, the Nets plan to hand out 10,000 Kyrie Irving jerseys before their first meeting with the Knicks on Oct. 25.
That’s next-level trolling from Brooklyn’s marketing department and it’s a great way to ensure that Nets fans line up in droves to attend the game. There should still be a solid mix of Knicks and Nets fans, but this should be extra motivation for Nets fans to make sure they aren’t outnumbered.
Brooklyn will obviously have the upper hand in this rivalry in the immediate future. Brooklyn is coming off of a playoff loss and they added two stars in the offseason.
The Knicks, on the other hand, are coming off a franchise-worst 17-win season. They added talent in the form of Julius Randle and a slew of veterans in free agency. But the Knicks still have a long way to go before they are at the same level as Brooklyn, even without Durant for a season.
In addition to the Oct. 25 matchup, the Nets and Knicks will collide on Nov. 24, Dec. 26, and Jan. 26. Expect to hear a lot of trash talk between Knicks and Nets fans this season.
