BK SWAG: THEY'RE THE MANHATTAN KNICKS..... WE'RE GONNA RUN N.Y. PROPERLY

The Knicks aren't the pnly team claiming N.Y., so why should they continue to use N.Y. in their name. All they've done is fail for 40 years. And now the boroughs introduce a formidable foe with their own home unlike the stepkids in L.A......
On Friday the Brooklyn Nets held their official pep rally with their new back court stars in attendance and jabs were taken all day while Knickerbocker fans were in attendance (possible bandwagon jumpers)........ STONE THEM!!!!

The pep rally began with....... "The Manhattan Knicks have shown that they can’t bring the championship home to New York City!” Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, bellowed to a crowd of about 1,000. “So it’s going to take the Brooklyn Nets to get the job done!”

Williams, Johnson and Nets officials could only smile sheepishly. The Nets know they are not contenders yet, but they made a leap in the right direction over the last two weeks. In retaining Williams and trading for Johnson, the Nets secured a little star power to open the Barclays Center next fall. With the additional signings of Brook Lopez, Gerald Wallace, Mirza Teletovic and Reggie Evans, the Nets have enough talent to make a playoff push in the Eastern Conference. Much work remains to be done. The Nets need viable backups at point guard, center and small forward, and they need more rebounding and defense throughout the roster. They are working to re-sign Kris Humphries, their starting power forward, who appears likely to return after flirting with the Charlotte Bobcats.

General Manager Billy King said a deal with Humphries was “close,” but added, “It’s a process.” He also confirmed that the Nets were working on a deal with Jerry Stackhouse, the veteran guard.

The Nets left most of the hyperbole to Markowitz, but they held nothing back in promoting their star-studded new backcourt. Banners featuring Williams’s and Johnson’s faces hung outside Borough Hall and in the interior room where the team held a pre-rally news conference.

At separate points, King and Coach Avery Johnson each unabashedly referred to the two All-Star guards as “the best backcourt in the N.B.A.” — a heady proclamation to make in the same week that Steve Nash joined Kobe Bryant.

“They’re good,” King said of the Lakers’ guards, who have three most valuable player trophies between them. “I like them. But I think ours is better.”

Bryant, naturally, assigned the Nets’ backcourt a slightly lesser ranking.

“They’re probably right behind us,” he said earlier this week. “Steve’s got a couple M.V.P.’s. I got a couple finals M.V.P.’s, regular M.V.P. and multiple championships, so I think that gets the nod right now.”

Both Williams and Joe Johnson can score, pass and defend. Both will draw double-teams. Either one can score 20 points on a given night.

Johnson, a six-time All-Star, has averaged at least 18 points a game in each of the last seven seasons, and more than 20 points a game in the first five years of that stretch. He also has career averages of 4.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds, making him one of the more well-rounded shooting guards in the league.

Williams, a three-time All-Star, has averaged at least 18 points a game for five straight seasons and more than 20 points a game in each of the last two. He is perennially among the league leaders in assists and is widely regarded as one of the top point guards in the game.

“There are a lot of good backcourts, but I don’t think there are backcourts that can do that,” King said, “two guys that can get you 18 and 20 every night and they can defend their positions.”

The Nets had visions of a three-superstar lineup, but their pursuit of Orlando’s Dwight Howard stalled when they could not provide the Magic with enough talent and draft picks. The talks were finally suspended on Wednesday, when King instead re-signed Lopez, who would have been the centerpiece of a deal. Although talks could potentially be revisited on Jan. 15 — when Lopez is eligible to be traded — King spoke as if the pursuit was over for good.

“I’m just glad now that we have a direction,” King said, referring to the Nets’ new core.

King said he recently apologized to Lopez for “what’s been going on” — a reference to the trade talks — and told him, “Now it’s behind you.”

The Nets’ party on Friday would surely have been bigger and louder had Howard been standing on the marble steps with Johnson and Williams. But Avery Johnson spoke optimistically of a “Big 4” that included an improving Lopez — whom he called a potential All-Star — and the sturdy Wallace.

Outside, the celebration was buoyant but modest, perhaps tempered by the sweltering heat. The rally began with a remix of M.O.P.’s “Ante Up,” which declares, “Respect mine, we Brooklyn-bound” — the lyrics interspersed with play-by-play calls featuring Williams and Johnson.

David Diamante, the Nets’ new public-address announcer, declared it “a momentous day for the borough and your hometown team, the Brooklyn Nets!”

The crowd cheered at every mention of the word “Brooklyn” and roared when Williams and Johnson appeared between two columns at the top of the Hall’s marble steps. Some fans were draped in official black-and-white Nets apparel. That sea was broken by a lone patch of orange — the crown of a Knicks cap.

Markowitz kept up the taunts.

“Move over, Manhattan — enough air balls!” he said. “You’ve had your chance