The rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks is growing by the day.
Things have gotten so intense between these two teams that a Sixers legend has noticed.
According to a video shared by Sam DiGiovanni on X, Julius Erving spoke about last season’s playoffs when fans of the Knicks traveled to Philadelphia to fill the arena and make a lot of noise.
Erving told the Philadelphia crowd at a park opening that they needed to buy tickets so that Knicks fans couldn’t infiltrate games in 2024-25.
Julius Erving, a proud Sixer for life, said he likes seeing the Sixers build courts and having the logo in the center to mark it for Philly.
He urged fans to make sure they go to games to prevent rival fans making serious noise at WFC (like Knicks fans in the playoffs) https://t.co/QgzuBFkZrI pic.twitter.com/t3DrYJdibx
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) August 15, 2024
The Knicks and Sixers met in the playoffs a few months ago and it was a knock-down, drag-out battle between two Eastern Conference titans.
In the end, the Knicks were able to overpower the 76ers and move on to the next round.
Because the two cities are relatively close to one another, New York fans had no problem hopping on a train or driving in their car to Philadelphia.
They filled the stadium and were sometimes louder than the home crowd of Sixers fans.
Erving doesn’t want to see a repeat of that in 2024-25 and is urging people to attend as many games as possible and stay as loud as possible.
This rivalry will surely be even stronger in the new season.
The Sixers improved their roster during the summer but so did the Knicks.
Both teams have their sights set on taking down the Boston Celtics and they don’t want anyone to get in their way.
Last season, many people commented on the lackluster Eastern Conference but they likely won’t be saying the same thing in the new season.
