The Knicks Win and NYC Exults, Mostly. The Nets May Be Irrelevant Now, But How Handle a Win in BK?
Some chaos in Manhattan reminds us how Barclays is a VERY tight fit. Also, City & State's Sports package raises some questions but ignores a key one (as does Mamdani).
Key points in this article
The Knicks galvanized something civic throughout the city.
The Brooklyn Nets may be irrelevant for now, but things can change.
The percentage of people acting out (fires, violence) in Midtown may have been small, but the margin for error in Brooklyn, should the Nets ever win, is far lower.
Politicians like to surf on team wins to bolster identity, but won’t address the unnecessary tax exemptions granted to profitable venues.
Who is Who in New York sports and politics, really?
New York City, it turns out, needed a New York Knicks championship: to be outside, massively, and to celebrate together, in all five boroughs. (Though not, in some apparently inevitable cases, to erupt in chaos, vandalism, and violence.)
Observed the New York Times’s Matt Flegenheimer, in Knicks Give Their City Something New: Impossible Joy:
It is different because, for all its mashed-together brilliance, so little about this city is felt universally: It is rich and broke and Mets and Yankees and pitiless and bighearted and enormous and never smaller than it has seemed lately, when it thought that it might get to see something that so many Knicks fans believed they would never see before they died.
It is different because New York’s mass unifying events tend to imply unbearable tragedy: 9/11, Sandy, Covid.
Also, people wanted to be outside, sharing something universal, celebrating what Pete Axthelm, in his chronicle of the 1969-70 championship Knicks, called The City Game.
More gathered nearby in Fort Greene, near Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, outside Habana Outpost, where I previously took photos.
While the situation got fun and funky, as shown below, with people clambering onto New York City buses, it apparently didn’t get worse.
I get it, though I don’t feel it as strongly myself.
Does Brooklyn count?
Does the Knicks’ celebration mean that Brooklyn didn’t need its own team to rally around?
Wait, there’s the WNBA’s New York Liberty, who play at Barclays Center and won a championship two years ago, earning a parade in Manhattan, unifying elected officials, and offering inspiration especially to girls and women, if not galvanizing the city.
(The Knicks’ parade is Thursday in Manhattan. Would the Nets parade be in Brooklyn? They’d have to have one, even if they’d also march in Manhattan.)
However the Nets lag, the New York City market for pro basketball and major concerts is big enough for two teams and two venues, albeit with one pre-eminent.
Have the Nets lost a generation?
Some say the Knicks' victory, a citywide phenomenon with decades of pent-up fandom, means the Brooklyn Nets don’t matter. Wrote columnist Ian O’Connor in The Athletic:
The Nets were good for two ABA titles in the 1970s, but they haven’t won it all in the NBA and — sans KD/Kyrie/Harden — have sunk into a sad state of irrelevance.
NetsDaily Site Manager Anthony Puccio sounded bitter:
It’s definitely a low point, and I’m no Nets fan (nor, really, a Knicks fan—though I did support NYC > San Antonio), but things can change.
If the Nets acquire a superstar, via trade or draft, and build a solid team, they’ll not only continue to fill the Barclays Center—where tickets for casual fans and visitors, though hardly cheap, offer a distinct advantage over Madison Square Garden—but also might inspire more fandom.
Remember how the Nets were briefly very relevant—and feared as a juggernaut—during the short-lived superstar era of KD (Kevin Durant), Kyrie (Irving), and (James) Harden?
Still, I agree that a Brooklyn Nets victory would not match a Knicks victory, however much they push it.
What next? The astute Steve Lichtenstein writes:
The Nets will never match what the Knicks have in terms of reach within New York City, but they can do a better job in establishing their own identity in the Brooklyn borough.
That goes beyond free and paid basketball clinics for students, with tens of thousands of t-shirts distributed. It requires building a better team.
Pettiness from the Nets
The Nets and their owners have been a little petty toward the city’s biggest sports news.
Note how BK MAG, owned by the Tsais’ Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, strenuously avoided mentioning the Knicks in its weekend preview.
In NetsDaily, Lucas Kaplan wrote ESSAY: The quiet alienation of a New York Knicks title.
Fan chaos
NYC erupts as Knicks win Game 5, NBA championship for first time in half a century, Gothamist reported, stating, “And when the final buzzer rang, the shouting, car horns, fireworks and sirens could be heard in every corner of the city.”
A few New York Post headlines:
Crazed Knicks fans plunge NYC into celebration chaos as NBA Finals ecstasy turns violent
Knicks fans set school bus on fire in Times Square madness: ‘I’m scared for my homies!’
No, that wasn’t representative, but still, as per this NYPD report, a significant fraction of people acted out, mostly in Midtown.
The City Reporter (formerly The City) cited major spikes in noise complaints and garbage associated with Knicks games.
What about a Nets title run?
How might a Brooklyn Nets title run affect the city, especially the Brooklyn neighborhoods nearest the arena, and the immediate blocks? As per one of my Atlantic Yards mantras, it’s a very tight fit.
Academic and former NYPD commander Brandon del Pozo, in Vital City, observed that, while it shouldn’t be a free-for-all, “the city needs to loosen the normal standards of disorderly conduct when New York’s beloved Knicks tee up to win the championship for the first time in most of our lives.”
That said, he noted that the NYPD has lots of experience regulating Midtown. Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, not as much. The crowds in Fort Greene, as per my own observation and videos, were energized, almost chaotic, but not edging into danger.
But what happens when everyone converges on the Barclays Center?
Those who remember the neighborhood disruption unleashed by, say, a Justin Bieber concert (November 2012), the MTV Video Music Awards (August 2013), or even a Satmar Hasidic gathering (December 2024), all relatively small-scale events, might have reason to be wary.
After I suggested, part-seriously, that the Barclays Center could host Knicks watch parties, a neighbor messaged me with alarm, warning of potential chaos.
So, Why Can't the Barclays Center Host New York Knicks Watch Parties?
I didn’t intend to go (relatively) viral. I woke up early on Saturday morning and posted this on X/Twitter:
Fair point, but that’s part of having an arena encroaching on a residential neighborhood: it should always be the responsibility of both arena security and the New York Police Department to enforce safety.
About politics and identity
Wrote The New Yorker’s Editor David Remnick, in The Knicks Take the Series—Seize the Joy!:
Joy! Fleeting, perhaps, but the Knicks are champions without doubt, and it’s been an intense pleasure to watch a team of such flash and fortitude, bravado and humility, prevail after more than half a century of waiting.
Indeed, they had something different: camaraderie.
Still, why do cities and states subsidize, directly or indirectly, private “sports entertainment corporations”?
“The benefit is all intangible,” sports economist Brad Humphreys said at a Sept. 18, 2008, House of Representatives oversight hearing. “It is a sense of community.”
That’s long been seen as more important to second-tier cities. But it’s still important to New York. Heck, there’s even a bard.
Well, as long as you overlook a few things, as Andre Gee writes.
About tax exemptions
Does that mean that Madison Square Garden deserves a tax-exempt site? Or the Barclays Center? A few elected officials know better, but only a few.
Note the response above to state Senator Julia Salazar, a Democratic Socialist, suggesting that billionaire owner James Dolan might move Madison Square Garden out of the city.
That’s utterly absurd. It’s the media capital of the country, and on top of a busy transit station.
And other countries, as academic Gustav Peebles (who co-wrote the first critical analysis of unrealistic Atlantic Yards financial projections) observes below, don’t need to subsidize their teams.
What about Mayor Mamdani?
Interestingly enough, while eagerly donning the uniform of the Knicks, Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is not talking about the venues’ tax breaks, though presumably removing them would fit into his “tax the rich” rhetoric.
Nor is NYC-DSA, which is somehow associating the Knicks’ win with the Mayor, though correlation is not causation.
In Editor’s note: Mamdani’s blessed by good sports fortune, City & State Editor Jeff Coltin observed, while introducing a package of articles on sports and politics, that Mamdani was surfing the Knicks’ good vibes, as well as the World Cup.
About the Liberty
In Commentary: All New York politicians love the Liberty, City & State City Editor Holly Pretzsky offered a photo showing Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, not quite buddies, sharing the collective glow after the team’s 2024 WNBA championship.
She cited seeing Congressional candidate and former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at the game, and he posted a selfie with City Council Member Tiffany Cabán.
The Mayor was there too. Writes Pretzky:
The New York Liberty – and its fanbase – is a politically potent entity for a politician like Mamdani or Lander. They’re feminist, woke – but in a genuine way – pretty gay, full of joy and very Brooklyn.
Except it’s stunningly hypocritical to be so progressive and so blind to the subsidies and tax breaks we provide teams and arenas.
See below for the projected value of the tax-exempt sites, though note that the value of Madison Square Garden’s tax break, as the Independent Budget Office has suggested, is artificially depressed since the city hasn’t bothered to study it.
The Liberty is one of the WNBA’s top three teams, so another championship is plausible. The team sold out the Barclays Center yesterday.
The blue, the orange, and the Nets
If some think (thought?) the Brooklyn Nets’ unusual black-and-white color scheme is cool, well, Fordham political scientist (and FAQ podcast co-host) Christina Greer, in Opinion: Why we proudly wear the blue and orange, reminds us that the Knicks’ and Mets’ colors reflect the Dutch flag, and now the New York City flag.
Greer, a Knicks fan, harshly disses the Nets:
I think the Nets will always be a New Jersey team to me. Their black and white uniforms and Basquiat cosplay doesn’t work for me. And don’t even get me started on the acoustics in Barclays, my thoughts about how developers (and my arch nemesis Jay-Z, the 0.067% former owner) pushed out thousands of Black families to build an arena for a franchise that performed just a step above a high school junior varsity team this season.
I’m regularly critical of the Brooklyn Nets and the larger Atlantic Yards project, and I will argue that the owners of the team and the arena company should be forced to share the wealth, for example, by paying for making the arena plaza permanent.
And yes, the arena and project are part of a gentrification trend that has displaced thousands of lower-income families, the majority of them Black, without providing the affordable housing that was supposed to stem the impacts of gentrification.
However, that’s mostly indirect displacement, not direct displacement, so the causation is less certain than Greer’s pronouncement, given the multiple factors behind gentrification.
Who’s Who in Sports?
Let me revise and update a June 8 posting on my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog, In City & State Who’s Who in Sports, three Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment connections, including (!) the head of the Social Justice Fund.
In City & State New York published The 2026 Who’s Who in Sports, subtitled “Notable New Yorkers at the intersection of athletics and politics,” including three people associated with Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, parent of the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Nets, and New York Liberty, but only one associated with Madison Square Garden.
The list is alphabetical, not ranked.
From Brooklyn
It includes Marissa Shorenstein, Chief External Affairs Officer, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, who “handles government affairs and strategic communications,” citing her work opening the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center and plans for a new Liberty training center.
The print magazine has an ad from Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which is part of the City & State business plan: bestow awards, get thanked.
It also includes Gregg Bishop, Executive Director, Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation Social Justice Fund, which “seeks to fight racial gaps in education, health and wealth, and in March it launched a $5.5 million small-business loan program for business owners around the city.”
Well, it contributed $1 million to the fund, with $4 million from the public. Nice work if you can get it.
Bishop, an Editor’s Note, tells us, “is a member of City & State’s advisory board.” Maybe that tipped the scales a bit.
The inclusion of Bishop helps confirm, as I’ve contended, that the Social Justice Fund is as much an arm of the Tsais’ business interests as a philanthropic entity.
What about MSG?
The twin roles of Shorenstein and Bishop seem to be combined, to some extent, in Richard Constable, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs and Social Impact at Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.
He serves as the company’s “lead on legislation, community and inclusion,” as well as on the board of MSG Entertainment’s Garden of Dream Foundation.
Still, isn’t there another MSG/Knicks official who has navigated sports and politics? It seems like they’re having a successful year, even if they’ve faced harsh criticism, for example, for facial recognition surveillance of ticketholders.
Other connections
Also on the list: New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke, cited for her role in attracting new fans and generating new revenue, leading to a huge jump in the team’s valuation.
One more tangential connection: Dan Katz, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, The Parkside Group, a lobbyist for the Nets and many other sports clients, including sports betting.
However, behind all that lobbying might be another thing: keeping those key tax exemptions.
The Nets' first mistake was not changing their terrible name when they moved to Brooklyn. Does anyone root for the Springfield Goalposts and the Fairview Foul Poles?
Few places in the US (or the world for that matter) have identities as strong as Brooklyn's, and instead of reflecting and contributing to that they kept the most generic, nondescript, lazy name in all of sports.
Sigh. Another pointed anti-Nets piece from New York media, arriving at the most predictable moment, right after a Knicks title.
You point out that the Nets did not publicly express support on social media, but maybe that silence says something about the environment around New York basketball. For years, the Nets and their fans have been treated like outsiders in their own city by certain writers and some Knicks fans. Even during the KD/Kyrie era, when the Knicks were nowhere near contention, the conversation around the Nets was often dismissive, sarcastic, or framed around why they did not “matter”.
So is it really that surprising if the Nets organization is not rushing to join the celebration? Support usually grows from mutual respect. If Brooklyn is constantly told it is not truly New York, why should the expectation only go one way?
Is Brooklyn not New York? That is not changing any time soon. Maybe the better approach would be to support and welcome basketball fans across the city, regardless of fandom, instead of constantly writing pieces that alienate Nets fans and frame them as intruders in their own market. There are Nets fans out here. We love basketball too.
The constant Knicks vs Nets framing gets old because it often feels like comparing apples to oranges. Comparison is the thief of joy, and New York basketball would be better if the whole city were allowed to enjoy it without one fanbase being treated as more legitimate than the other.