For years the Nets were a second class citizen even in their own town, hardly ever selling out and when the Knicks went over to New Jersey they brought their fans with them.

No longer.

There was definitely a large contingency of Knicks fans in the Barclays Center on Monday night, but gone are the days when it was 80/20 in their favor. Instead it was more like 60/40, or better, in the Nets favor.

“Every time some sort of Knick contingency started to cheer, our fans got louder,” Nets coach Avery Johnson told Tim Bontemps of the NY Post. “This is what we have been dreaming about since I have been here.

“It is a nice feeling and I am glad we rewarded our fans with a victory — they deserved it.”

It all started with the introductions when every Knick, except maybe Carmelo Anthony who was born in Brooklyn, was lustily booed. But Nets fans protected their building throughout the game often drowning out chants of ‘MVP, MVP’ with boos when Melo was at the line. Nets fans answered back with an MVP chant of their own when Deron Williams went to the line.

Only when Raymond Felton stole an inbound pass and kicked it out to Melo for a three was the Knicks crowd ever overpowering.  But as Melo faded out so did the Knicks fans though. They weren’t much of a factor during the fourth quarter and then the Nets fans provided their team with a big boost in overtime with deafening chants of, “BROOOOOOK-LYYYYYN, BROOOOOOK-LYYYYYN,” that sent the Knicks back to Manhattan knowing that there is a new game in town.

No longer are the Knicks the only basketball team in New York and no longer will they get the home court advantage when taking on the Nets. The best part is — over time the Nets fans will only grow stronger, more deafening. New York no longer is a Knicks only town and the Brooklyn crowd let them know it.