New York City is a two-basketball team town: the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, and both will be representing the Big Apple in the 2020-21 NBA playoffs. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio went all-in on the Nets in his Tuesday daily briefing.
De Blasio sported a Nets hat during the briefing, which seems like a normal accessory for a politician supporting a local team shortly before a playoff run, especially considering fans will have a chance to win Nets playoff tickets if they get vaccinated at a pop-up site outside the Barclays Center.
"The Nets are stepping up for Brooklyn, for all of New York," de Blasio said. "This is going to be another extraordinary effort to get everyone vaccinated."
It's the fact that he added a jersey to the ensemble that's causing some eyebrows to raise on social media:
THIS JUST IN: guess who's joining us to set up a #COVID vaccine site outside @barclayscenter?
— City of New York (@nycgov) May 18, 2021
Thank you to the @BrooklynNets for getting in the game to get New Yorkers vaccinated. Tune in for more. https://t.co/vL7jQKHX9N pic.twitter.com/7vC29uu8bs
It just looks a little ... tourist-y? Like "hey, it's my first trip to New York City, I'm pretty excited to see the Statue of Liberty and Times Square later." That's on top of openly declaring your allegiance to one team when the other -- the Knicks -- have made the playoffs for the first time in forever.
Or maybe it's the 6'5" de Blasio's attempt to let the Nets know he's available to fill in? We may never know.