Who Owns New York? Nets' Kyrie Irving Won't Concede to Knicks

The Brooklyn Nets star isn't giving an inch to his crosstown rivals in the battle for the Big Apple.

Kyrie Irving has added fuel to the enteral fire between his Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks. In a Tuesday night stream on his Twitch channel, Irving refused to concede metropolitan hardwood power to Brooklyn's crosstown rivals, claiming their supposed supremacy would always be threatened by his Nets.

"I would never agree that the Knicks run New York as long as Brooklyn's there, bro," Irving said. "If the Nets were still in New Jersey, I would definitely say the Knicks run New York, but sorry, bro, we're in Brooklyn, we're right over there."

The Knicks were one of several Irving targets while the All-Star played Grand Theft Auto V. He also took aim at fans of the Boston Celtics, who eliminated the Nets in a four-game first-round sweep.  As for the Cleveland Cavaliers, he called their fans "cockroaches."

Irving, of course, left the Celtics and Cavs under negative circumstances and has been a target of their fans' ire ever since. 

In the midst of his ranting, Irving did have some friendly words for RJ Barrett, who is expected to be a major part of the Knicks' latest reclamation project. 

“Y’all keep asking me about RJ Barrett, RJ Barrett is tough, c’mon y’all know this, stop it,” Irving remarked. “Y’all know these things, RJ Barrett is tough.”

Despite missing the playoffs and the hype around the Nets, the Knicks actually outdrew the neighbors at the gate. New York ranked eight in attendance at 18,621 per game. The Nets were 13th at 17,354.

Additionally, the Nets have won only two playoff series since their arrival from New Jersey prior to the 2012-13 season, just one more than the downtrodden Knicks.