NBA

Felton enjoys Pierce stoking Nets-Knicks feud

Raymond Felton has heard the chatter from Paul Pierce recently about how the Nets are coming after the Knicks and want to take over New York.

Well, Felton has his own message for Pierce: Not so fast.

“Well, when you’ve got somebody like Paul Pierce talking every day, every week, saying different little things, it’s only going to fuel the rivalry even more,” Felton said with a big smile at his Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City event at St. John’s University.

“At the end of the day, we’re still New York’s team. We’ve still got New York on our chests. You can talk all you want, you can say all you want … and, you know what, they’ve got a good team, without a doubt. You can’t take nothing from them. They have a good team, and I’m pretty sure they’re going to have a good season.

“But we’re not worried about the Brooklyn Nets. We’re worried about the New York Knicks. That’s all I care about.”

FULL KNICKS SCHEDULE

FULL NETS SCHEDULE

Felton clearly has enjoyed the back-and-forth with Pierce, which has helped fan the flames of what is quickly turning into one of the NBA’s fiercest rivalries. For Felton, who spent his college years at North Carolina with a neighboring archnemesis in Duke, rivalries are what make sports enjoyable.

“It’s all about fun,” he said. “It’s all about bragging rights. It’s all about junk talking. And, at the end of the day, for the most part I’m friends with most of those guys over there anyway.

“It’s not a ‘We hate each other’ type of thing. It’s just a rivalry, and it’s fun.”

Felton, who said he and his teammates plan to getting together shortly after Labor Day at the Knicks’ practice facility to start working out and getting to know each other, was very excited about the moves the front office made to try to improve a team that won 54 games and the Atlantic Division last season.

“They’re great,” said Felton, who also said he has lost 15 pounds this offseason. “I think we’ve gotten better. We’ve gotten younger … since everybody was saying we were so old, we got younger, but at the same time we got better, and that’s the main thing.”

Felton was particularly impressed with the signing of Beno Udrih. After the Knicks had a lot of success having two point guards — from the trio of Felton, Pablo Prigioni and Jason Kidd, who since retired and took over as head coach of the Nets — on the floor together, adding Udrih gives Knicks coach Mike Woodson the opportunity to operate in a similar fashion this season.

“I love Beno,” Felton said. “I think Beno is one of the most underrated point guards in this league. He’s going to help us tremendously, without a doubt.

“J-Kidd is one of the best point guards to ever play this game, so you can’t say that’s been replaced. But having Beno and Pablo, we still have a great point-guard nucleus, and we need that.”

* Several members of the Nets have convened in Los Angeles this week to take part in informal workouts.

Rookie forward Mason Plumlee tweeted Saturday night he had landed in Los Angeles and was looking forward to working out with his teammates.

Several Nets have homes in Los Angeles, including newcomers Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Two Nets who are not expected to attend are Mirza Teletovic, who is playing for the Bosnian national team in Europe, and Toko Shengelia, who is recovering from knee surgery.