Research-The City Game

It has always been known as "The City Game". From the concrete playgrounds of the outer boroughs to the sound of sneakers squeaking on a gym floor, the game of basketball has been the New York City game. When I was younger, my friends and I would be out on the courts dribbling, running, jumping and shooting for hours at a time. We would only stop for the occasional ice cream from the Mister Softee truck or an egg roll from the Chow Chow Cup truck. We played until it got too dark to play or there was no air left in the ball. In the months between October and April, after I would leave the gym, I would rush home to my radio or television to listen or watch that nights New York Knicks NBA game. Remember, this was before SportsCenter. Cable TV in the early 70's consisted of Manhattan Cable which was only available in certain parts of the city. My apartment in Queens was not one of them. So for home games, it was the radio with the voice of Marv Albert painting the picture, and on the road, it was WOR-TV with Bob Wolf calling the games. The next day it was the rush to the corner candy store to buy the Post or the Daily News to read about the game and see who scored the most points. Back then, Willis, Clyde, Dollar Bill, Cazzie and Debusschere were known to every New Yorker not just the die hard fans. The Knicks were the darlings of the Big Apple and no sport in town was more important than basketball. It is where Madison Square Garden became the World's Most Famous Arena and the start of basketball crowds chanting Dee-Fense when the opponent held the ball.

As the Knicks were winning their second World Championship in four years in 1973, a new league was trying to take advantage of "The City's Game". The American Basketball Association (ABA), was born in 1967 and in 1968 formed a franchise called the New York Nets. The Nets played out on Long Island in places like Commack and Hempstead. But, in the beginning the city game didn't catch on in the suburbs. On Christmas Day 1968, only 257 people showed up to watch the Nets play the Houston Rockets. But, in 1973, a kid from Roosevelt, Long Island, returned home and turned the Nets into Showtime on the Island. Julius Erving, Dr. J, electrified crowds and began selling out the Nets new home at the Nassau Coliseum. Led by the Doctor, the Nets won the last two ABA Championships in 1973-1974 and 1974-1975. The Metropolitan Area had two great basketball champions and no hoops fan in the country would believe these to be the last two New York Championships won in the last 35 years.

Once the Nets along with three other A.B.A. teams merged into the N.B.A., once Roy Boe decided it would be cheaper to sell Julius Erving and once the team eventually moved to New Jersey, the Nets became irrelevant to the New York sports fan. Even though, since the 1976 merger, both the Knicks and Nets have played in two NBA Championship series each without either winning, the town as always been a Knicks town.

After losing the NBA Championship to the San Antonio Spurs in 1999, change began to envelop the World's Most Famous Arena. Cablevision, which owned Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks named James Dolan to be Chairman of MSG. The 2000-2001 is the last season the Knicks have had a winning record or won a playoff game. And in 2003, Dolan anointed , Isiah Thomas to be President of Basketball Operations. Under Isiah, the Knicks became one of the worst teams in basketball. He traded for guard Stephon Marbury in a deal that cost the team a lottery pick in 2004 and 2010. Marbury never became the super star Isiah thought he would be and finished his career in new York by testifying against Thomas in a sexual harrassment suit brought on by a female Garden executive. Thomas would also trade for the Bulls Eddie Curry, a trade that may go down as the worst trade in NBA history. Curry has played just 69 games the past three seasons due to injury. The Knicks gave the Bulls three players and two draft picks, both of which turned out to be lottery picks in two successive seasons. Curry himself was involved in his own sexual harrassment suit when he was accused of soliciting gay sex from a limo driver. (source-N.Y. Post 1/12/09) This is what the Knicks organization has been trying to cleanse itself from for the past two seasons. The draft pick lost in this years draft is the last of the stentch left over from the Isiah years. But, the damage it has caused this one proud franchise has left it vulnerable to attack from across the Hudson.

Ironically, Stephon Marbury is the connection. Before being traded to the Knicks from Pheonix, Marbury was the Nets lone all-star in the 2000-2001 season. After that season, the Nets traded him to the Suns for point guard Jason Kidd. Kidd's arrival immediately turned the Nets fortunes around. The team won its Divsion for the first time ever , and then went to its first NBA Championship Finals where they were swept by the Lakers. They followed that up with their second straight trip to the Finals a year later, this time losing in 6 games to the Spurs. But, despite their success, the team has never found a home in New Jersey. In 2004, a real estate developer named Bruce Ratner purchased the team with the sole purpose being to move the team to his new real estate project in Brooklyn. He wanted to make the Nets part of "The City Game". Lack of funding and local resident disputes kept delaying the project but this past March, a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the project was handed down and the ground breaking has begun. After a two year stay in Newark, the Nets will move to Brooklyn in the 2013 season. Ratner, earlier this season was forced to sell majority interest in the team to a Russian billionaire who may yet set the stage for the biggest basketball battle New York has ever seen.

Mikhail Prokhorov is a self made Russian entrepreneur. He is Forbes magazines 39th richest man in the world. Prokhorov likes the limelight and is positioning himself to be New York's next George Steinbrenner. He has already fired his first salvo at the Knicks, erecting a huge billboard facing Madison Square Garden with a picture of himself and minority owner Jay-Z as the blueprint for greatness. I hope by now you understand why all the banter over this years crop of NBA free agents has taken added significance in New York. The Nets are two years removed from moving into a brand new building at the Brooklyn Naval Yards. Brooklyn is New York's most populus borough and of the 2.6 million people living there, 4% are Russian. (source-2008 U.S. Census)

The Knicks have a two year window to re-assert their dominance and re-gain a hungry city's basketball appetite. With Amare Stoudamire already committed, the Knicks have enough money to spend on one more free agent super star. Once Eddie Curry's (yes him again) contract expires at the end of next season, they will be able to sign one more premiere player. So these next two signatures could prove to be the most important signings in team history. The Nets can sign one of this years top players but benefitted from having two first round draft picks in this years draft. Add those players to an all-star point guard in Devin Harris and a solid young center like Brook Lopez and its not so clear cut which local team is the most attractive to fans.

Prokhorov is a fresh new face looking to make a splash with money to burn. Dolan has the money to spend but the reputation as the worst owner in New York. The window of opportunity has never been greater for the Nets to push the Knicks off their pedestal. Which team will emerge as the face of "The City's Game" ? Only time will tell. But, it sure looks like basketball will once again be relevant in New York.