Knicks title run 'embarrassing' to Nets, owner Joe Tsai says - ESPN

The New York Knicks are still basking in the glow of their historic NBA championship, but not everyone in the Big Apple is thrilled about it.

Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai admitted in a recent interview that the Knicks' title run is «embarrassing» to his franchise and insisted that the crosstown rivals' recent success will not alter Brooklyn's rebuild «trajectory.»

«Every year, some team is going to win a championship,» Tsai told NetsDaily. «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 told NetsDaily that he remains committed to his plan of building the Nets' fanbase in a city that leans heavily toward the Knicks, who drew more than 2 million fans to their championship parade through Manhattan's «Canyon of Heroes» earlier this summer.

Peter Stern, the chief financial officer for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, told CFO Magazine that the Nets are «happy for the Knicks» and that they hope to draft off their rivals' «tailwinds» by attracting «dormant fans.»

«We think about mostly just tailwinds,» Stern told CFO Magazine. «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.… This year, there were plenty of folks around New York who maybe weren't