Brooklyn Nets Announce Notorious B.I.G. Night: Would Biggie Have Been A Knicks Fan Though?

Today, March 9, 2017, marks the 20th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.‘s passing. The Brooklyn Nets have announced that they will be celebrating the life and times of Brooklyn’s own Biggie Smalls when they host the New York Knicks at the Barclays Center on Sunday, March 12 at 6 p.m. ET. With the late, great rapper’s closest family members and friends in attendance, the commemorative “Biggie Night” will feature special performances by DJ Enuff and the Brooklynettes, as well as limited edition merchandise being sold throughout the arena. Best of all, the Nets organization have announced plans to refurbish the basketball gym at Queen of All Saints School in Fort Greene, where the young Christopher Wallace attended middle school.

Though it may just be a marketing ploy to distract us from how horrendous the last place Nets are playing this season, a “Biggie Night” is long overdue; however, the event got us wondering: if BIG were alive today, would he be a Nets or a Knicks fan?

The first question you’d have to ask is: was Biggie even a Knicks fan when he was alive? To that, we answer ‘we don’t know.’ Sure, his lyrical arsenal included countless basketball references, but we can only find one mention of the Knicks. On the iconic track “I Got A Story to Tell” off of Life After Death, Frank White raps:

The shit she kicked, all the shit’s legit
She get dick from a player off the New York Knicks
N**** tricked ridiculous, the shit was plush
She’s stressin me to fuck, like she was in a rush
We fucked in his bed, quite dangerous
I’m in his ass while he playin’ against the Utah Jazz

Hardly the bars of a diehard Knicks fan. We’d eventually learn from Fat Joe in 2016 that Biggie may have been rapping about Anthony Mason, the late, six-foot-seven-inch power forward who played for the Knickerbockers from ‘91 to ‘96. Again, keeping in mind BIG’s basketball analogies, as well as the mingling of the sport and hip-hop culture, it’s hard to believe that IF he was a Knicks fan that his only lyrical reference would be about sneak-smashing a star player at the time. However in Big Poppa’s defense, he was/is praised for his enthrallingly imaginative stories, and this may very well just be his form of an homage. Who knows?

In addition to his one Knicks “story,” we were unable to track down any references to or images of B.I.G sitting courtside at the Garden, hanging with any NYK players, or even wearing a blue-and-orange jersey. We did find a picture of 2Pac and Charles Oakley though, oddly enough.

It may be safe to assume that Biggie did not have a strong allegiance to any particular hoops squad, but rather an overall love for the sport and it’s players within. Shaquille O’Neal, for one, has frequently talked about his close relationship with Mr. Christopher Wallace — they even recorded music together at Shaq’s Orlando home.

Our next question to consider is: would BIG have been the Brooklyn ambassador for the Nets’s move if he were alive? Sure, there are a number of uncertainties to take into account, but if we were to assume that the Nets still relocated, and BIG stayed the course, becoming the rap mogul that Jay Z has become over the last 15 years, then yes, he would’ve been the face of the revamped black-and-white Nets. It would’ve been a no-brainer. There was nobody more Brooklyn than The Notorious One, and we don’t doubt that he would still be the King of the borough today, certainly over Jay. If the Nets wanted — or rather needed — a true Brooklynite to co-sign their move, then BIG would’ve been their man.

With that said, yes, we do think Biggie Smalls would be a regular at Brooklyn Nets games, hypothetically speaking of course. But for all we know, he may have been a Lakers fan.

We hit makers with acres
Roll shakers in Vegas, you can’t break us
Lost chips on Lakers, gassed off Shaq
Country house, tennis courts on horseback