Yankees/Red Sox. Broncos/Raiders. Bruins/Canadiens. Rangers/Islanders. Giants/Dodgers. Those are match ups that will always get the headlines in their respective sports world.

            Then we come to Knicks/Nets. Geographically, it should be something big. The Devils have rivalries with the Rangers and Islanders.  And yet, for the Knicks and Nets, the juice hasn't there.

            Yet.

            To be fair, it hasn't really gotten the chance to in the past. While Walt Clyde Frazier and the Knicks of the 70's were at the top of the NBA, the Nets and Dr. J were in the ABA. When the Ewing led Knicks of the 90's were fighting with Jordan and Pippen for the right to play in the NBA finals, the Derrick Coleman, Kenny Anderson and the rest of the Nets were struggling to make the playoffs. In 94, when the teams met, the Nets were an afterthought as the Knicks fell a game short of the NBA championship, losing to the Houston Rockets in seven.

            Fast forward to the year 2004. Jason Kidd has turned the Nets into an Eastern conference powerhouse, leading them to back-to-back Finals appearance. The Knicks, after bringing in the much-maligned Isiah Thomas and the legitimate star point guard in Stephon Marbury, make it back to the postseason, intent on proving that while the Nets had a nice run, they never had to go through the Knicks before. They were going to show who was the number one team in town.

            There was talking. Penny Hardaway said he wanted the Nets. Tim Thomas wanted to start a fight after getting fouled hard in game 1. He called Kenyon Martin a "fugazy" (a fake) tough guy.  Martin called Thomas a whiner. Marbury was out to prove he was better than Jason Kidd, the player he was traded from New Jersey for. The experienced hall of fame player and coach Lenny Wilkins, going up against the rookie head coach who was cut four times by his high school basketball team, Lawrence Frank. It had all the makings of creating a rivalry.

            Yet in the end, it fizzled.

            The reason. The Knicks were out of their league.

            Yes, the Knicks were not at full strength, missing Allan Houston. However, Allan Houston was not stopping Kenyon Martin, who dropped 36 points and grabbed 13 boards in game 4. Houston, who is a sieve defensively, would hurt the Knicks at that end of the court. He would have taken time away from Hardaway and Frank Williams, the best two Knick players in the series. So that is just not an excuse.

            The Nets are light years better. Kidd, who did not even have his best series, outplayed Marbury. Thomas couldn't find his way back onto the floor after playing awful and then getting injured at the end of game 1. The Knicks had no answer for Martin, who yanked down double digit rebounds in all four games. No, for a rivalry to be good, there has to be competition. Kurt Thomas would have to play comparably to Martin and Marbury would have to hit a shot in the second half of a game, something he failed to do in the first two, both Net blowout victories.

            But there is a bright side to this. The series gave the fans something to talk about. The Net fans got to shove their team's dominance in the face of those Knick fans who teased them about their allegiance for years. Knick fans had to stomach the insults as their wimpy little brother suddenly grew up and pounded on them like there was no tomorrow.  When the series shifted to the Garden, the games were close and entertaining. We got to hear about who would win if Thomas and Martin fought.  Heck, even one of my friends said after the sweep was completed; "Go Pistons. Im becoming a Net hater for the rest of these playoffs."

            If that is the case with most Knick fans, then the series was the start of something. There had to be some jealously on their part before seeing Kidd and the success the Nets had enjoyed, but the series focused it. If the fans don't like each other, then eventually the teams will feed off of it and the games will become bigger and more meaningful.

And yes, the reality is that there was no real rivalry before this series. And there still may not be one.  But next year, you can bet Knick fans will circle the calendar want their team to win that game a little more when the Nets cross the Lincoln Tunnel. And that's a definite start.