There is no room for two NBA teams in New York City.

New York City and New Jersey boast 13 professional sports teams, but no team unites New Yorkers like the New York Knicks. That has been true for decades, and it's never been truer than right now.

The Knicks are four days removed from closing out the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 to win the 2026 NBA Finals — the franchise's first championship since 1973. In the days since, the Knicks have made the rounds on every available talk show. One of Karl-Anthony Towns' stops was "Late Night with Seth Meyers," and he took a subtle, if not unintentional, shot at the Brooklyn Nets.

"The celebrations, honestly, were some of the most craziest things I've ever seen," Towns said. "It just shows the passion our fans have. But it was so amazing to see our team bring together New York. Like, I've never seen all five boroughs get together... I saw Brooklyn celebrating for the Knicks, and they have a whole team!"

The New Jersey Nets relocated to Brooklyn for the 2012-13 season, and they had a small window to capture the city. And they knew it. They threw everything at it — Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving — and the franchise is still paying for the swings and misses.

The Knicks missed the playoffs in eight of 10 seasons between 2012 and 2022. The Nets reached the playoffs in seven of those years, but they never advanced beyond the Eastern Conference semifinals and suffered six first-round exits. The Nets even acquired five first-round picks (and more) from the Knicks in exchange for Mikal Bridges two summers ago and, somehow, are now on the losing end of that deal.

To make matters worse, while the Knicks are the undoubted darlings of New York, the Nets don't have a top-five lottery pick to show for their 20-62 tank job. If anyone from the Nets front office is reading this, I'm from Kansas City, and we would love an NBA team.