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The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
The team plays its home games at Madison Square Garden, an arena they share with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL).
They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City; the other team is the Brooklyn Nets. Alongside the Boston Celtics, the Knicks are one of two original NBA teams still located in its original city.
The team, established by Ned Irish in 1946, was one of the founding members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which became the NBA after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949.
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The Knicks were successful during their early years and were constant playoff contenders under the franchise's first head coach Joe Lapchick. Beginning in 1950, the Knicks made three consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, all of which were losing efforts. Lapchick resigned in 1956 and the team subsequently began to falter.
It was not until the late 1960s when Red Holzman became the head coach that the Knicks began to regain their former dominance. Holzman successfully guided the Knicks to two NBA championships, in 1970 and 1973. The Knicks of the 1980s had mixed success that included six playoff appearances; however, they failed to participate in the NBA Finals.
The playoff-level Knicks of the 1990s were led by future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing; this era was marked by passionate rivalries with the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and Miami Heat. During this time, they were known for playing tough defense under head coaches Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy, making NBA Finals appearances in 1994 and 1999. However, they were unable to win an NBA championship during this era.
Since 2000, the Knicks have struggled to regain their former successes, but won their first division title in 19 years in 2012-13, led by a core of forwards Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire. They were eventually eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Indiana Pacers, and had failed to make the playoffs for eight years until 2020-21 when they were led by forward Julius Randle and sophomore RJ Barrett, who was selected third overall in the 2019 NBA draft.
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The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
The team plays its home games at Barclays Center.
They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City; the other is the New York Knicks. The club was established in 1967 as a charter franchise of the NBA's rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA).
They played in New Jersey as the New Jersey Americans during their first season, before relocating to Long Island, New York, in 1968 and changing their name to the New York Nets. During this time, the Nets won two ABA championships (in 1974 and 1976).
In 1976, the ABA merged with the NBA, and the Nets were absorbed into the NBA along with three other ABA teams (the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Denver Nuggets), all of whom remain in the league to this day.
In 1977, the team returned to New Jersey and played as the New Jersey Nets from 1977 to 2012. Led by star point guard Jason Kidd, the Nets reached the finals of two consecutive NBA seasons (2001-02 and 2002-03), but failed to win either title.
In the summer of 2012, the team moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, becoming the first major sports franchise in the borough since the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1957. Since moving to Brooklyn, the Nets have qualified for the playoffs on six occasions, including trips to the Conference Semifinals in 2014 and 2021.
The Brooklyn Nets were founded in 1967 and initially played in Teaneck, New Jersey, as the New Jersey Americans. In its early years, the team led a nomadic existence, moving to Long Island in 1968 and playing in various arenas there as the New York Nets.
Led by Hall of Famer Julius Dr. J Erving, the Nets won two ABA championships in New York before becoming one of four ABA teams to be admitted into the NBA as part of the ABA–NBA merger in 1976. Unlike the other three ABA teams entering the NBA, who played in cities without any NBA presence, the Nets were required by the NBA to pay an encroachment fee of $4.8 million (equivalent to $23 million in 2021) to the New York Knicks.
The team financed that payment by selling Erving's contract to the Philadelphia 76ers; and the Nets went from winning the last ABA title in 1975-76 to having the worst record in the NBA in 1976–77.
The team then moved back to New Jersey in 1977 and became the New Jersey Nets. During their time in the state, the Nets played in two consecutive NBA Finals in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons, led on the court by point guard Jason Kidd.
After playing 35 seasons in New Jersey, the team moved back to the state of New York, changed its geographic name to Brooklyn, and began playing in the new Barclays Center, starting with the 2012-13 NBA season. The team's move from New Jersey to Brooklyn was approved unanimously by the NBA Board of Governors on April 13, 2012.
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I was just as important or just as smart
as any other of the guards I played with.
I still had to call out plays, notice schemes,
know the systems, do everything they had to do.
Patrick Ewing
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