With the Knicks and Nets tied at 1-1 in their series, which team is better isn’t the real question. The real question is who is a bigger franchise, and who will be the bigger franchise.

In the recent game between the Knicks and Nets, a real rivalry has begun. Between the hype from the Nets becoming big, and the reality of it, which one is true? Well, let’s look at the facts.

The largest factor of this whole situation is the obvious: the Knicks have been here forever, while the Nets are a brand new team. As the Nets win more and more games, their fan base will become larger, which means more money. Since the Knicks have been around since 1946, their fan base may be huge, but there are not many new fans. But, as the Nets keep their good record up, how many Knicks fans will switch over to the Nets? With this argument, the Nets have to the potential to become as big, if not bigger than the Knicks.
Another factor to this is national recognition. If you go across the country you can normally spot people wearing a Carmelo Anthony jersey, or even an Amare Stoudemire jersey. Now, let’s take a look at the two biggest people on the Nets. The first being Deron Williams, and the second being the old Hawks all-star, Joe Johnson. If you go to California and you look for a Deron jersey, you won’t have much luck finding one. And someone wearing a Johnson jersey? Not going to happen. So if you look at this argument, the Knicks win by a longshot.

But, if we take a look at what is on paper, while the Knicks and Nets are fairly even with their record, (Knicks 18-6, Brooklyn 13-10) the Knicks are a much older team. Between Stoudemire, Kidd, and Felton, how much do the Knicks have left? Three of their great players, really old. And if we take a look at the Nets, they have many new prospects to come up. Between Blatche, Brooks, and Lopez, they have another great team to come up when Deron and Johnson leave. But what do the Knicks have? Carmelo, close to their youngest player, is 28. When Carmelo leaves, the Knicks are basically done. They have no rookies to take over the spots of the star players. So in 10 years, maybe a little longer, the Nets will definitely be the dominate team in New York.