Last year, they were strangers after Martin Luther King Day. They were in the same division, ostensibly chasing the same goal, but it was hard to remember that because the Knicks and the Nets were rarely in the same time zone at the same time, let alone the same area code.
Before the 2012-13 basketball season was half over, the first truly intramural Knicks-Nets rivalry was all done, the teams splitting a pair at the Garden and another pair at Barclays Center before moving, full time, to an endless blur of Hawks and Wizards and Sixers and Bobcats. It was a silly bit of scheduling that robbed us of anything resembling a true race for the Atlantic Division title — and borough basketball supremacy — ultimately claimed by the Manhattans.
Not this time. This season the games are sprinkled with a little more thought throughout the calendar, and ought to provide excellent benchmarks as to where these teams are in regards to each other — to say nothing of their common enemies in Chicago, Indianapolis and, of course, Miami. It will only add to what promises to be the best one-two basketball show the town has seen in 40 years, when the Knicks of 1973-74 were defending NBA champs and the Nets were ascending toward the ABA title.
The story lines at the starting gate are plentiful and diverse: The Knicks won 54 games last season and yet the year felt lost when it ran into a wall in Indianapolis; the hangover still remains. There isn’t a soul found on the Internet or anywhere else who believes the Knicks can match that number, or the No. 2 seed they earned in the East last year.
Carmelo Anthony enters a year of reckoning that could end with an exit; the same applies for coach Mike Woodson, although his departure could come paired with a pink slip if things don’t proceed apace. On one level, it is a firm reminder the Knicks are fully back: bolstered (or burdened) by expectation and the gaping hole of a 40- (going on 41-) year title drought.
And that’s only augmented by the fact that across the East River, the sleeping giant that was always going to be the Nets in Brooklyn has shaken off the slumber of its own disappointing finish last year and now looks eager to growl.
Jason Kidd traded in his Knicks warm-up for an Armani suit, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce traded in their Celtic green for Brooklyn black, and the possibilities for internecine intrigue have never been higher. Most of the basketball cognoscenti seem to believe the Nets have already surpassed their older neighbors, and maybe they have. Now we get to find out for sure.
And the best times to check in will be the four times when the boroughs collide with one another:
Game 1: Thursday, Dec. 5
At Barclays Center
This is Game 19 for the Nets, Game 17 for the Knicks, and by this point there will certainly be a reputation attached to both. The Nets will already have two tricky road trips behind them — at Sacramento/Phoenix/LA Clippers and at Houston/Memphis — and will be 17 games into the Jason Kidd era after he serves the two-game suspension to start the year.
The Knicks will also have a Western swing under their belts — at Portland/LA Clippers/Denver — and will already have had a couple of bracing tests at home against San Antonio, Houston and Indiana, and one at Chicago. Neither team is likely to have the kind of gaudy record the Knicks started out with last year, but this should be for an early stake of first place.
Game 2: Monday, Jan. 20
At Madison Square Garden
Another MLK Day matinee — with luck, this will be far longer than a two-year tradition — and a reminder this year’s City Series will only be half over by the exact date it was completed last year. And by this point in the season, we should have an awfully good idea of where these teams are.
The Knicks will officially reach the halfway mark — Game 41 — and will arrive after completing one of the softer five-week stretches of their season. The Nets (playing Game 39) have another rough road trip preceding this one — at Indiana/San Antonio/Oklahoma City — so it’s conceivable, likely, even, the teams might have records that look vaguely similar: say, 24-16 for the Knicks, 23-15 for the Nets.
Game 3: Wednesday, April 2
At Madison Square Garden
This 2 ½-month gap is where both teams’ seasons will likely be defined, and if you believe the Nets are the better team, as most do, this is where that will be determined. When the Nets cross the river, it’ll be for their 74th game, and assuming they survive their annual road trip from hell that closes out February — at Chicago/Utah/Golden State/LA Lakers/Portland/Denver/Milwaukee — the rest of that stretch is very, very manageable. Could they be, say, 49-24 by then?
The Knicks, meanwhile, will be coming off a stretch in which they play 18 out of 26 on the road — thank the Big East and NCAA Tournaments for that — and could well be losing sight of the Nets as they reach game 76; 44-31 is certainly possible.
Game 4: Tuesday, April 15
At Barclays Center
Game 81 for both, and for both playing each other is likely to be less meaningful as playing for position. If the season proceeds as we think, the Nets might well be battling the Bulls for the 2 seed, while the Knicks will be trying to catch the Pacers for the 4.
Or it could go an entirely different way.
Either way, the Knicks and Nets will keep a close eye on each other. And thanks to the schedule-makers, that won’t always be by reading the standings in the morning.