A new New York City billboard might have Knicks fans feeling some type of way. It features Kyrie Irving in profile, with the quote: "In my heart, I always knew I wanted to play at home." But instead of being erected near Brooklyn's Barclays Center, where the Nets play, it's plastered just outside of Madison Square Garden, where their cross-town rivals reside.
If you want to get technical, Irving is from West Orange, New Jersey, and the Nets used to be located in Jersey, which kind of makes the franchise his hometown team. Also, Nike owns the space on Madison Square Garden where the billboard is located, and it usually rotates it with billboards of its athletes. With that in mind, it's unlikely that the Nets had anything to do with the billboard's placement. But the facts probably won't do much to ease the pain of Knicks fans.
Remember, the Knicks were once the alleged front runners to land Irving and Kevin Durant. But after a bungled free agency, both stars signed with Brooklyn. According to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, the Knicks "were not prepared to offer" KD the max contract due to his Achilles injury, and both Irving and KD took their talents to Brooklyn. Naturally, people had thoughts about the new billboard's awkward location.
