Right after the NBA released its 2026-27 regular-season schedule, the contrast between New York City’s two franchises became starker. Five miles away from Madison Square Garden, where the New York Knicks will raise their first championship banner in 53 years, the Brooklyn Nets are quietly preparing to open their campaign at Barclays Center against the Charlotte Hornets. In the aftermath of the Knicks’ historic championship run, Nets owner Joe Tsai addressed the crosstown contrast and Brooklyn’s direction moving forward.

Speaking alongside Nets execs, Tsai acknowledged the sting of seeing the Knicks lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

”Every year, some team is going to win a championship,” Tsai explained during an interview via Nets Daily. “So it happens that this year that team is in the same city. It doesn’t make us feel very good. It irates our fan base and it is embarrassing but in business or in competition, in sports, or in anything, you shouldn’t let the embarrassment factor affect how you perform…

“[We] had a plan and we’re rebuilding and I think right now we are on a positive trajectory. So it doesn’t change my thinking at all.”

Tsai’s stance reflects the long-term responsibility he assumed when he completed his purchase of the Nets in September 2019. The deal made him the franchise’s NBA governor and gave him control of the business operations at Barclays Center, placing both the team’s competitive direction and its Brooklyn identity under his ownership group.

Since then, the Nets have cycled through sharply different phases, from the star-driven Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden era to their current asset-based rebuild. The Knicks’ title has intensified the crosstown contrast, but Tsai’s comments indicate that Brooklyn does not intend to abandon its timeline simply to answer its rival’s success.

His words also come as he faces a major change in his personal life. Tsai and his wife, Clara Wu, announced their divorce after 30 years of marriage. They confirmed that the separation is amicable and they will continue to be business partners of their co-owned sports franchises, including the Nets and the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

Though the Liberty won the 2024 title, the Nets are still going through constant rotation changes. They acquired the veteran presence of Julius Randle, who previously anchored a New York fanbase with the Knicks. Yet, they still lack a definitive cornerstone, say someone like Jalen Brunson for the Knicks.

Despite not having a franchise ambassador so to speak, Tsai told Nets Daily that the Nets are committed to drawing young fans. That was cemented with strong backing from his team’s GM.

Brooklyn Nets rebuilding off Knicks’ success

After ending their historic 53-year championship drought, the Knicks enter the 2026-27 season as defending champions. Meanwhile, the Nets are entering the next phase of a ground-up rebuild under head coach Jordi Fernández, utilizing draft capital, cap flexibility, and young talent after accumulating 46 total wins over the past two seasons.

In a recent rookie press conference, Nets general manager Sean Marks strongly echoed Joe Tsai’s sentiment, brushing off the notion that Brooklyn should alter its blueprint in response to Manhattan’s success.

“No, not at all. I mean, we’re not going to be motivated or less motivated by what somebody else is doing,” Marks stated. “I think all we control is our path. I think we set out on this a couple of years ago, and I think I’m very happy with what the group has done, what Jordi [Fernández], the coaching staff, have done to develop these young men, and it’s gonna be really exciting to see what they look like, and you know, whether it’s a year or two years from here, and who really seizes this opportunity?”

Two years after the Liberty had a parade, it was the Knicks who brought the Big Apple to a standstill with the franchise’s first ticker-tape parade (the first two Knicks championships didn’t have parades). Brunson & Co’s record-breaking playoff streak also reinvigorated New Yorkers who were starved for success in basketball. The energy went beyond Manhattan, including the watch parties at Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and Williamsburg.

While the emotional toll on Brooklyn fans is undeniable, executives within Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) view the frenzy sweeping the metropolitan area as a net positive for the sport as a whole. Peter Stern, Chief Financial Officer of BSE, highlighted the broader dividends created by New Yorkers’ renewed basketball fever.

“We’re happy for the Knicks,” Stern noted in a recent interview with CFO Magazine. “But even more so, we’re happy for the NBA. You could make an argument that it’s a tailwind because of this reason or that reason, or a headwind. We think about mostly just tailwinds.

“We want more people loving basketball, and the Knicks’ championship, or I should say, even their deep playoff runs previously, really activated many dormant fans. Fans got to engage with it and appreciate this special thing called the NBA in a different way.”

For Brooklyn, the path back to contention relies on organizational effort and strategic asset management. With young potential stars like Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. and a roster anchored by veteran additions Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr., Tsai and Marks are betting that staying the course will ultimately deliver sustainable success to Barclays Center, regardless of the noise across the East River.

Brooklyn will get an early measure of the crosstown dynamic when it visits Madison Square Garden on November 2 for its first meeting with the defending champions. The game will also mark Julius Randle’s first return to the Garden as a Net after five seasons with the Knicks.

The teams will meet again at Barclays Center on February 1, 2027, giving Brooklyn its first home date against the Knicks since New York’s title run. By then, the Nets should have a clearer sense of whether their young core is progressing and whether the patient approach outlined by Tsai and Marks is beginning to take shape.