The rivalry between the Knicks and Nets is getting as heated off the court as it is expected to be on it this season.
Some more spice was added to the hyped season opener between the two teams — the first regular season game at the soon-to be-completed Barclays Center, and the Nets’ first official game as the Brooklyn Nets — when a New York Magazine article quoted Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov referring to the Knicks owner James Dolan as “that little man.”
Through a spokesman, Prokhorov declined to comment on the article, which was about the Nets and the arena.
This isn’t the first time Prokhorov, who is roughly 6-foot-8, has gone out of his way to tweak Dolan, who is about a foot shorter, since the Russian billionaire bought the Nets in May 2010.
Prokhorov took his initial shot across the bow at Dolan and the Knicks when he declared in his introductory press conference the Nets would “turn Knicks fans into Nets fans.” The Nets later erected a giant billboard across from Madison Square Garden with both Prokhorov and part-owner Jay-Z portrayed on it beneath the words, “the blueprint for greatness.”
The Knicks got their revenge, in a way, when they won the season-long battle to acquire Carmelo Anthony in 2011 — though the Nets struck back the next day by landing Deron Williams in a blockbuster trade with Utah.
Now, after the Nets splashed more than $300 million of Prokhorov’s cash this summer, the two teams will be fighting for the Atlantic Division crown this season in what quickly could become one of the NBA’s fiercest rivalries, now that the Nets have moved into New York.