Knicks Or Nets? Skyzoo And Troy Ave Break Down The Rivalry

When the New Jersey Nets invaded NYC to become the Brooklyn Nets, owner Mikhail Prokhorov made it loud and clear—he's not here to play little brother. Creating a new look for the franchise by building a billion dollar stadium and enlisting the help of hip-hop royalty and Brooklynite Jay Z and purchasing an absolutely gigantic billboard in Manhattan with the phrase 'Blueprint for Greatness' just a block from Madison Square Garden, Prokhorov's words didn't come without any action.

Of course the Knicks, already rivals of the NJ Nets and with deep roots within New York City, didn't take things lying down. Since the Nets' arrival in Brooklyn two years ago, the crosstown rivalry has been electric, putting fans smack in the middle of a civil war. Die hard Knicks fans who suffered through years of irrelevance stayed loyal while others switched allegiance to Brooklyn. The players continually bash each other in the press whenever they can. Each move in the offseason by one team was countered by the other, simulating a game of chess, waiting for one to slip so they can capture the coveted title as the lone King of New York. So XXL asked two New York rappers about their respective teams to get their take on the rivalry. Skyzoo, a Brooklyn native, is a die hard Knicks fans who despises the Nets for not knowing their place. Troy Ave, a fellow Brooklyn native, appreciates what the New Nets team does for the City. They go head to head labeling their team's strengths, weakness, and why their team is better than the other. —Emmanuel C.M. (@ECM_LP)

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Strengths—Brooklyn Nets
Troy Ave: I feel like the team is 100 percent improved from last year. We're way better. I feel like the Boston Celtics of last year could have beaten the Nets, even without Rajon Rondo. So now you bring the veteran leadership with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, we get that aggressiveness, that’s what we were lacking. With KG, he just brings up the level of energy, especially if they play him the type of minutes like in the San Antonio Spurs system. Then you got to play Pierce, he’s clutch. Jason Terry came over too. We still got Joe Johnson, Deron Williams. I feel like if the team gels right—and a lot of teams say if they gel right like with Amare and Melo, they're still not beating the Heat or giving them real completion—with the Nets, we're too deep right now.

And the bench is crazy. Andray Blatche be balling. I even forgot about Brook Lopez, he’s an All-Star center. He’s probably second-best center in the game. Then you play him alongside KG. That’s like when niggas use to play with Charles Oakley, that’s going to improve you automatically. I think Brook Lopez is going to have a career season playing alongside KG. Not only that, I think KG is going to improve on his numbers from last year 'cause he's playing with Brook Lopez. KG never played with a center like Brook Lopez. So you've got to pick your poison: are we going to show attention to KG or we going to show attention to Brook Lopez? And you got KG who can play you inside or outside, he don’t miss no open shots. Teams are going to have bad matchups, very very bad matchups.

Strengths—New York Knicks
Skyzoo: We’re pretty much loaded at guard and small forward, especially at the point with Raymond Felton and Beno Udrih. I love the point guard situation. Two-guard situation is great; we’re loaded there. Talking Iman Shumpert, JR Smith and Timmy [Tim Hardaway Jr.], we’re loaded there. The three has always been good. Melo really never had the help, someone to come off the bench and do what he does; with Meta World Peace I think that was huge. There was a lot of moves I was hoping we make over the summer, some of them we did, some of them we didn’t. That was one of them. If you can praise Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, those 37, 38-year-old guys, then you can't stunt on Meta for being 32, 33, saying his days are over. Really guys?

Amare is amazing when healthy; I think he needs to take that trip to Germany with Kobe. Whatever they doing there, get it done. Kobe goes overseas and a couple weeks later comes back straight. The center position I’m scared because we really don’t have anybody to back up Tyson Chandler. Tyson is starting, he got the height, the defensive prowess, but the thing that Tyson has over everything is he got his heart. He got more heart than a lot of people in the league. 

Weaknesses—Brooklyn Nets
Troy Ave: I think the only weakness that we have is how to utilize those bench players. I don’t trust Jason Kidd, that’s the only thing, 'cause he hasn’t been proven yet. I feel like they are going to have to coach themselves. If we had George Karl or one of those type of coaches, I would have been, we’re good. But it takes more than just a deep bench. You got to know how to utilize the players and who to play in the 3rd quarter together. I think the pieces are there. I think we have the best team in the NBA; on paper we do.

I don’t believe Kidd is going to be a good coach. I got heavy doubts on him. My doubts are based on facts. He hasn’t done anything to prove anything yet. A good thing about the Nets is that they down to fire a coach in a minute. I feel like if Kidd would of been out of the league for 4 years and did some assistant coaching, cool. But he was just in the league and he was just playing against some of those players who were dominating a team that he was on. That respect factor really not going to be there. You can’t really get coached by another player like, “Nigga I was just dunking on you. How you going to tell me to do something you can’t do?” That’s my only doubt, my strongest doubt, got to be Jason Kidd. If he can dramatically become a great coach, which I doubt...I don’t know why they chose Jason Kidd.

Weaknesses—New York Knicks
Skyzoo: We have a lack of backup centers at the moment. I think the Andrea Bargnani thing could work if they toughen him up. If they can really toughen him up—I think that’s where Meta comes in. I feel like he’s has a tendency to be overbearing in a good way. We got some tough pieces, I just want the height. The point guard, shooting guard or small forward, I’m not worried about, that power forward and center, I really want toughness. Indiana is the only team I'm worried about. I’m not worried about the Bulls. Once you get outside of Derek Rose, who’s there? Boozer was supposed to be that guy, but it didn’t happen. Loul Deng is dope but he’s about to be out the door. Noah is cool but he’s literally just defense and heart. He’s Tyson but a little shorter. I’m not worried about the Bulls.

Don’t let me get started about those punk ass Nets. I’m not worried about those clowns. The Heat, obviously you got to be worried about the champs but we always had their card because of Melo. Lebron will tell you every day of the week. The toughest person for him to guard is Melo. At the end of the day, I’m not real worried about the Heat like other people are. The only worry is Indiana because of Roy Hibbert. And not because Roy Hibbert is so epic, it’s because he’s overflowing with confidence. Other than them, I’m not really worried about the Atlantic or the East.

Rivalry—Brooklyn Nets
Troy Ave: This year, Knicks might get one in The Garden, and maybe if we playing at the end of the year and we resting players. But they ain’t even fucking with the Nets now. And that’s the sad part. They let the Nets improve so much better than them.

Kevin Garnett, he’s going to shape the attitude and the image on the team he’s going to make them fierce competitors. Like we’re not here to fuck around, we’re not here being friendly, we came here to do work. We can cool after the game but right now as we playing I don’t fuck with you. I think Kevin Garnett is highly important. He gives the Nets that whole attitude and that leadership cause I don’t feel like the coach is going to give that real leadership.

Rivalry—New York Knicks
Skyzoo: #Knickstape. The Nets are nobodies, and I’m from Brooklyn born and raised. I live 15 minutes from Barclays. I can walk to Barclays in 15 minutes and I put Knicks stickers all over that building. I hate that place man. I love what Barclays means for the city, for the borough and what it does for us. But if we talk sports, we talking basketball, get that bum ass team out of here. The team is awful. You running around spending all this money, Prokhorov, he’s a burger, and all this money trying to one-up the Knicks who’ve been here forever. Then they grabbed Jason Kidd, which is a sucker move, which was strictly for the headlines. Jason Kidd, who is an incredibly intelligent guy as far as basketball goes and basketball IQ, never in the history of sports has someone moved that quick. Never has it been the next season. It was strictly for PR and they hired Lawrence Frank to really be the coach and let him make the call and let Kidd cheat on the test.

And then you got these bum ass Celtics. You get Jason Terry, he’s a burger, I hate him, you get KG and Paul Pierce, who you got to respect but people forgetting we seen this movie before. This movie is the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers. It bombed, it went nowhere. The difference is the Nets using the same script but it's older. We've seen this movie before, they all clowns, they all burgers. You can never pay me enough to put on a Brooklyn Nets Jersey. It’s #Knickstape all day. I can’t wait when the Knicks play the Nets December 5 at the Barclays. I’m going to go and get into so much trouble, cause I’m going to be Knicks out. I’m looking forward to it like Christmas.