Robin and Brook Lopez are the true Knicks-Nets rivalry
The Lopez twins are on the verge of taking over New York if only for a day. When the Knicks and Nets get together at Madison Square Garden on Friday night to play their first intracity game of the year, all eyes will be on the starting centers, Brook and Robin Lopez, for their first dual taste of the rivalry.
Even Derek Fisher knows the real story of this game isn't that it's Nets vs. Knicks. From Marc Berman of the New York Post:
More importantly, the Lopezes are even aware what their presence does to a rivalry which, let's be frank, almost no one cares about, and that includes New Yorkers. The twins, though, add a little bit a spice and turn it into a...shall we call it a "cat fight"?
As the Post profiled over the holiday weekend, Robin and Brook each have cats, who they claim apparently don't like each other. Unfortunately, though, they aren't getting too riled up for the game. More from Berman:
Robin went on ESPN's The Lowe Post—a podcast hosted by the fantastic basketball writer, Zach Lowe—earlier this week and actually discussed playing against Brook. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear there will be any trash talk. Robin said that when he and Brook play against each other, neither of them says one word to the other. He qualified it as just the way it's always been. So, don't look for the trash talk between them during the game. The cats, though, they could totally be at each other's throats.
“You don’t want to come out on the short end of a sibling rivalry,’’ said Fisher, who is the father of twin girls. “It’s probably more a sibling rivalry than a Knicks-Nets rivalry. That’s probably the most intriguing matchup.’’
“People are reflected in their pets, but, no, [the cats] are not worried about the game,’’ Robin said Thursday. “They’re too lazy to care.’’
