Brooklyn forward Paul Pierce amped up the Nets-Knicks rivalry last week by saying that his new club was going to become the No. 1 team in New York City.
“It’s going to be what it was (a rivalry), but now on steroids,” Pierce told Life and Times Magazine. “This is a city battle. We’re going to divide the city now. Before this was a Knicks town, but now that I’m here we’re going to call it, ‘Nets Village.’
Pierce’s comments didn’t sit well with Knicks point guard Raymond Felton although he realizes that Pierce is just trying to stoke the fire.
“They will never take over the city. Because we’ve got ‘New York’ on our chest,” Felton told ESPN.com’s Ian Begley. “They’ve got ‘Brooklyn’ on their chest, and we’ve got ‘New York.’ They’ll never take over the city
“(Pierce) saying that is just him talking. At the end of the day, it’s all about rivalries. We understand that — he knows that, I know that. He’s just trying to fuel it.”
In a separate story published on ESPN.com, Felton said that he is excited by the Knicks offseason changes, especially the addition of Andrea Bargnani from the Toronto Raptors.
Felton has dropped 15 pounds during the offseason in hopes of being able to push the tempo and likes the idea of finding Bargnani on the secondary break.
“I’ll push it right down the court … if I don’t have anything, I know I got him,” Felton said.
