Feature Photo: Sport Magazine Archives, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As a basketball team, the complete history of the Brooklyn Nets technically started out as a team known as the New York Americans. The team was officially founded in 1967 out of Teaneck, New Jersey, before relocating to Long Island, New York a year later. That move came with a name change to New York Nets before heading back to New Jersey in 1977. There it remained until Brooklyn’s Barclays Center was ready to welcome the Nets back as a New York-based team, as it was originally intended.
A League of Their Own
When Nets was first established as a team, it was one of the founding members behind a new league called the American Basketball Association. Arthur J. Brown was the team’s first owner and was also the man behind the Amateur Athletic Union teams in New York City and its surrounding communities. Originally, Brown intended to name the team New York Americans and have them play at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. However, the New York Knicks didn’t like the idea of two professional basketball teams sharing the same city as its home turf. The pressure the National Basketball League’s team poured on the Armory was enough to force Brown’s team to find a new home arena just a few months before it was scheduled to play there.
In need of a home with so little time to do it, Brown tried valiantly to find a venue in New York City that could host his team. Unfortunately, there were none to be found. Either the venues were already booked or arena owners were concerned about how the Knicks would respond. This was, after all, a rival team that was seeking to take up space in their own backyard, so to speak.
Since New York City offered no options to work with, Brown looked to New Jersey. The Teaneck Armory welcomed the team. On an official level, it was still the New York Americans but unofficially, it was the New Jersey Americans. At the end of the team’s first season, it tied for a playoff spot with the Kentucky Colonels in the league’s ABA’s Eastern Division.
As fate had it, the Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey was booked. The Americans needed an alternate location. The Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, claimed it could accommodate the game between the Americans and the Colonels. However, when both teams arrived they observed the venue was structurally inadequate. Because of this, the Colonels refused to play. The ABA league commissioner at the time, George Milkan, awarded that team a forfeit victory as the Americans were blamed for failing to provide a playable basketball court.
Americans No More
Upon going into the team’s second season, the Americans looked to possibly move to Newark, New Jersey. However, it was ultimately decided to remain in Long Island and rename themselves as New York Nets. This name was chosen as a name to rhyme with Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, as well as the American Football League’s New York Jets. As a name, the Nets seemed appropriate given that the sport of basketball requires a net as part of its scoring basket.
As the New York Nets, the team had very few people showing up to watch a home game. It was half the crowd size the team experienced while in New Jersey. After a disappointing season of only seventeen wins out of the seventy-eight games played, Brown sold the team to Roy Boe. Boe’s ownership of the team witnessed the acquisition of college star player Lew Alcindor from UCLA. However, Alcindor opted to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA instead of playing for a team stemming from his home city.
The 1969-70 season witnessed Boe’s Nets enter the ABA playoffs for the first time. As a result, the attendance tripled from just over one thousand spectators it had previously. Before the season was over, the popularity of the Nets continued to grow. After it managed to sign star player Rick Barry to the team just in time for the 1970-71 season. For the second time the Nets made it into the playoffs but once again were denied to become ABA’s champion.
Hello, Nassau
Just in time for the 1972 playoff season in the ABA, the New York Nets moved its basketball team to the newly constructed Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island. For Boe and his men, this was a good thing. For the first time in franchise history, it made it to the ABA finals. However, the Indiana Pacers proved to be too much for them and the team’s dream to win the ABA title would have to wait at least another year.
When star player Rick Barry left the Nets at the end of the season, there was a need to build from the ground up again. As a result, the 1972-73 season was not a good one there were still missing pieces to turn the team into championship material.
Call the Doctor
Upon the start of the 1973-74 season, the Nets brought in Julius Erving from the Virginia Squires. Also referred to as “Dr. J,” the man led his new team to the franchise record of fifty-five wins. He became the ABA’s Most Valuable Player that year, as well as leading the Nets to its first ABA championship title after defeating the Utah Stars.
The 1974-75 season was even better for the Nets with fifty-eight games won. However, the playoff season wasn’t nearly as impressive as they were eliminated in the first round by the Spirits of St. Louis. Adding to the team’s woes was the sudden loss of one of its teammates. On June 24, 1975, he was among the victims killed when Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 crashed just shy of approaching the John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Perhaps inspired by the loss, the Nets had a fantastic 1975-76 season that saw Erving guide the team to another fifty-five games won season. He also became ABA’s MVP again. Together, the Nets managed to overcome the Denver Nuggets after winning what became the ABA’s final championship series as a league.
Sacrifices
Erving was to the New York Nets at that time what Babe Ruth was to the New York Yankees. He was a superhero that rose the basketball team from the abyss to championship status. However, when the American Basketball Association was absorbed into the National Basketball Association in 1976, everything changed. The ABA was no more and the Nets once again would have their fate decided by their rivals, the New York Knicks.
The Nets were one of four teams that joined as part of the merger that took place between the two leagues. Upon joining, there was a $4.8 million fee that was owed to the New York Knicks, as demanded by the NBA. The only way the team could afford this was to sell Erving. The Philadelphia 76ers were more than happy to fork out the money for him.
The cost that came with selling Erving was a price that deeply wounded the New York Nets as a championship-quality team. The 1976-77 season was the worst it ever experienced, which was a severe blow considering it won the ABA title at the end of the previous season. It only won twenty-two of the eighty-two games scheduled. To make matters worse, the home game attendance was abysmal. As a result, the financially strained Nets chose to move back to New Jersey before starting the 1977-78 season.
As disappointing as the 1976-77 season was, the Nets did have the first NBA team in history to have the starting lineup feature, left-handed players. Tim Bassett, Bubbles Hawkins, Kim Hughes, Al Skinner, and Dave Wohl each made history as lefties playing for a professional basketball team.
Now, one would think the Knicks would be happy to see their rivals leave New York. However, this wasn’t the case. Once again, the Knicks blocked the Nets as it felt it was an infringement of territorial rights it had to its neighboring state. This resulted in an anti-trust lawsuit against the Knicks. When the dust settled, the Nets were ordered to pay four million dollars to the Knicks if they wanted to go through with the move.
New State, New Challenges
With the move approved, the New York Nets renamed itself to the New Jersey Nets. As they waited to play their home games at a new arena called the Meadowlands Sports Complex, it played the first four seasons at the Rutgers Athletic Center at the venue’s university in Piscataway. The first of these four seasons witnessed the team led by Bernard King as they qualified to compete in the NBA playoffs for the first time. Unfortunately, it was a short run as the Philadelphia 76ers bounced them out in the first round with a two-game sweep.
When the Meadowlands was finally able to accommodate the Nets, the team’s 1981 season began in the Brendan Byrne Arena. The 1982-83 season witnessed Larry Brown coaching the team to its best regular season before he left to coach the University of Kansas. Actually, he accepted the job a month before the season was scheduled to finish. Because of this, he was suspended and the Nets had to deal with the consequences. Briefly taking his place was Bill Blair but the damage had already been done. The first round of the team’s playoffs had the Nets square off against the New York Knicks. As if yet another slap in the face against the Nets, the Knicks blocked them from advancing any further.
From Dream to Nightmare
The harshness of the 1983 NBA playoffs was met with an impressive 1983-84 season. Stan Albeck was the new team coach and assembled what was regarded as the Nets’ dream team. Otis Birdsong, Darryl Dawkins, Micheal Ray Richardson, and Buck Williams each played their role as they led the New Jersey Nets through the first round of the NBA playoff series. It was the first time the team managed to earn this accomplishment. However, they weren’t able to go any further as the Milwaukee Bucks bested them after playing six games.
It was hoped the 1984-85 season ended with better results but there were too many injuries involved at the time. Although they were able to make it into the playoffs, they had no chance against the Detroit Pistons. When new head coach Dave Wohl took over from Albeck.
In the beginning, the season showed a decent twenty-three-win start. Unfortunately, injuries once again interfered with the team’s ability to become a top-notch team. As if this wasn’t enough, Micheal Ray Richardson failed a drug test for the third time. This was enough to exile him from the league permanently. Even though the Nets managed to make it to the playoffs, they weren’t in it for long. The Milwaukee Bucks sent them packing after the first round.
Since 1985, the New Jersey Nets simply couldn’t pull it off as a winning team. Between a revolving door of coaches, management, and players, there were so many holes going against the team. The injury-laden roster needed to go, hoping perhaps new blood would improve the team’s fortunes. There were also ongoing contract disputes that didn’t help matters at the time. To make matters even worse, Orlando Woolridge was suspended for nineteen games during the 1987-88 season. This came about after he violated the NBA’s drug policy.
The Plague Continues
It wouldn’t be until the 1991-92’s season did the New Jersey Nets show any real sign of improvement. They finally earned a spot in the NBA playoffs but were eliminated in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers. After this season was over, Bill Fitch was replaced by Chuck Daly as the team’s head coach.
With Daly at the helm, the Nets experienced a much better 1992-93 season. Unfortunately, injuries still played a factor in the team’s ability to do anything more than have a solid regular season. Again in the playoffs, they were eliminated in the first round by the Cavaliers.
On June 7, 1993, tragedy hit the New Jersey Nets in a big way. Its star player, Drazen Petrovic, was killed in an automobile accident in Germany. Prior to his injuries during the 1992-93 season, he led the Nets as a far better team than they had been since 1985. The 1993-94 season did see the Nets earn another playoff spot but their New York rivals, the Knicks, eliminated them in the first round. When it was all over, Daly resigned as head coach. Butch Beard would take his place.
Identity Issues
The second half of the 1990s was not kind to the New Jersey Nets and the revolving door of coaches and management continued. Aside from failing as a championship-quality team in the NBA, it also had trouble keeping the sinful nature of pride at bay. The reputation of the Nets was terrible, as was the case for most of its player roster. At one point, it was considered to rename the team New Jersey Swamp Dragons in 1994.
Even though the team did receive approval to make the name change, it was rejected by the Nets owner at the time, David Gerstein. He was the only voter who decided against the name instead of for it. It was enough to prevent the name change.
Instead of changing names, the decision was made to improve the team’s roster. It also changed the team’s logo to feature a 3D shield. Previously, it was a basketball-shaped design that had the team name sported inside. It was hoped perhaps with a flashier look that it would serve as a source of inspiration.
Going into the 1998 playoffs it seemed to work but the Chicago Bulls took the Nets out in three straight games. When the 1998-99 season began it came three months late as there was a lockout against the players by team owners. It was the third lockout in NBA history. This one revolved around the salaries of players, a lockout event that lasted from July 1, 1998, until January 20, 1999. It resulted in a fifty-game season instead of the standard eighty-two games.
21st Century Boys
When the NBA was up and running again, the Nets still had performance issues as a basketball team. Again, injuries interfered with the team’s ability to achieve championship status. The coaching changes continued as the desperate Nets management hired Rod Thorn on June 2, 2000, to become the team president. This was the same man who drafted Michael Jordan while he was the general manager for the Chicago Bulls. Unfortunately, injuries still posed a problem for the Nets. Potential stars met with injuries, as well as personality conflicts, that marred the team’s ability to function anything beyond a moderately stable roster.
In 2001, the Nets made key trades that brought in a younger roster as it was regarded as the lowest-scoring in the league. It also had the oldest bench roster, a problem that needed to be rectified. By the time the 2001-02 season was over, it appeared as if this was the case. It became the team’s best season since joining the NBA. It also became one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the sport.
Also, for the first time in franchise history as an NBA team that it won the Atlantic Division title as they defeated the Indiana Pacers. From there, it was earning its first Eastern Conference title after beating the Boston Celtics. For the first time in history, the New Jersey Nets were in the NBA finals. Unfortunately for the Nets, the Los Angeles Lakers won that series in a four-game sweep.
Denied!
The 2002-03 season saw a repeat but this time the Nets eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks for the Atlantic Division title, and then the Detroit Pistons for the Eastern Conference title. However, the San Antonio Spurs wouldn’t let the team from New Jersey proceed any further. The Nets were denied as champions for the second time in a row.
Also denied that year of winning a major team championship was the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Like the Nets, this ice hockey team made it to the finals of their playoff series. However, also like the Nets, they failed to take home the big prize. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks took home the Stanley Cup instead.
Even though New Jersey didn’t get to see an NBA or NHL champion that year, it at least enjoyed the full length of postseason excitement instead of just a round or two. For the fans, this would be as good as it gets as the Nets didn’t do quite as well going into the 2003-04 season. At least this wasn’t the case at first.
Again, there was a coaching change as Byron Scott was fired and replaced by Lawrence Frank. As soon as Frank began to coach the Nets, it began to thrive again as a team. It was enough to win the Atlantic Division title for the third time. What made this one so special was it came at the expense of its top rival, the New York Knicks. However, that’s as far as the team was able to go. Its third Eastern Conference title was denied by the Detroit Pistons.
What Ifs
The 2004-05 season saw the New Jersey Nets undergo some key changes. At first, it looked as if these changes were for the worse. As head coach, Frank’s decision-making soon paid off as the team’s fortunes changed for the better as its star player, Jason Kidd, returned to the lineup from his injuries. They also had Vince Carter join the team in a trade that saw a handful of players go to the Toronto Raptors. It was hoped Kidd and Carter, along with Richard Jefferson. Unfortunately, Jefferson was the next player on the team to sustain injuries serious enough to keep him out for the rest of the regular season.
Upon going into the 2005 NBA playoffs, Jefferson returned. However, the Nets wouldn’t do so well even with the Nets’ star lineup. The Miami Heat eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs. When 2005-06 began, this same lineup played a key role in the team’s ability to bounce back from its slow start. It also enjoyed the longest winning streak of the season with fourteen games in a row.
The 2006 NBA playoffs saw the Nets win its fourth Atlantic Division championship. However, the Eastern Conference was won by Miami Heat in a series that had Nets fans wondering what could have been if Cliff Robinson passed his drug test. He played a key role for the team as a defender at the time.
Near Misses
Injuries once again plagued the New Jersey Nets throughout the 2006-07 season. Even though the team made it to the playoffs, the Nets failed to move beyond the first round as they were defeated by the Toronto Raptors. It was hoped the next season would see a better performance but it was marred with controversy and trades. It was bad enough to keep the Nets from entering the playoffs.
For Rod Thorn, this was unacceptable. Changes needed to be made. While Lawrence Frank attempted to make sure the Nets wouldn’t experience anything so ridiculous again, those efforts proved to be in vain. He, along with the series of coaches that came and went over the span of the next five seasons, was unable to elevate the New Jersey Nets above anything than an NBA trainwreck.
Despite a roster that featured youthful, star-quality players, the Nets simply couldn’t get it together well enough to play like a highly performant team. This resulted in a series of coaching changes as management scrambled to improve the team’s fortunes. It simply wasn’t working. These changes included Rod Thorn stepping down as team president on July 25, 2010. He was replaced by Billy King.
Brooklyn Bound
Starting in 2004, the new location for the New Jersey Nets began to look into alternatives after the YankeeNets sold the team to a group that was led by Bruce Ratner. The real estate developer outbid the group led by Charles Kushner. Ratner’s vision was to bring the Nets back to New York while Kushner tried to keep the team in New Jersey. For Ratner, it was his dream to bring a professional team back to Brooklyn since losing the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958.
There was the Barclays Center, an arena slated for Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood. After enduring legal battles, the development of the basketball team’s new home was underway as of spring 2010. As one of the minority owners of the Nets, rapper Jay-Z suggested the team be called the Brooklyn Nets. As of April 30, 2012, that’s exactly who they became after the NBA Board of Governors approved the move.
So in 2010, the New Jersey Nets were now set to relocate to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. In the meantime, they had to tough it out at the Prudential Center in Newark. This wasn’t easy as the 2010-11 season was marred with controversies and disappointment. After spending thirty-five years in New Jersey, it was time for the Nets to come back to New York.
Then the 2011-12 season began with an NBA lockout, as well as another bad start for the Nets. It ended just as badly as it started. During this time, the Nets were waiting to move to Brooklyn’s brand-new Barclays Center. The final game the team played was on April 23, 2012, against the Philadelphia 76ers. It was a game they lost 105-87 before a soldout crowd of 18,711 fans. Three days later, the final game was played as the New Jersey Nets were in Toronto, Ontario, as the team lost yet again. The Raptors defeated them, 98-67.
The Brooklyn Nets
Not only did the Nets change cities it was also rebranded. The new team colors were now black and white in a font that suited the 1950s era of Brooklyn and New York City. This, combined with logo changes that sported a stylish shield, became an incredibly popular merchandising item as soon as it was made available to the public. It sold more inventory in the first few days since the NBA made it available than what was typically sold in a year while the Nets were in New Jersey. The 2012-13 season saw the Nets outsell all the other NBA teams when it came to merchandise.
For the Brooklyn Nets, the new location seemed to spark new life into the team. It also won the interest of Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard. When the trade between the two teams wasn’t possible, the Nets pulled out and looked to the Atlanta Hawks for Joe Johnson. At the same time, Deron Williams remained with the Nets, along with Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace.
The first game the Brooklyn Nets played took place on November 3, 2012. It was against the Toronto Raptors and it was a victorious opener, 107-100. This wasn’t supposed to be the team’s first game as it was scheduled to play in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks. However, Hurricane Sandy had other ideas.
The strong start of the Nets continued in November that saw head coach Avery Johnson earn Coach of the Month for the Eastern Conference. However, December became a disastrous month that led to Johnson’s dismissal. Briefly taking his place was P.J. Carlesimo. Losing Johnson seemed to ignite the Brooklyn Nets team spirit as it won enough games to earn its first playoff spot in six years.
The first playoff series in the NBA for the Brooklyn Nets was against the Chicago Bulls. It didn’t result in a playoff win and the Nets would have to wait another year to try again.
Kidding Around
Replacing Carlesimo as head coach was recently retired Nets player Jason Kidd. He received assistance from Lawrence Frank to serve as his assistant coach and mentor. This was followed by a mid-year 2013 trade with the Boston Celtics that took two weeks to finalize. A flurry of players was swapped, as well as draft picks. By the time it was over, the Brooklyn Nets dished out the league’s highest payroll, as well as luxury tax payments. In total, nearly two hundred million dollars was spent.
One would think such an investment would set the Nets 2013-14 with an explosive start. However, between Kidd trying to learn the ropes as head coach and a flurry of injuries hurting the team, this wasn’t the case. The first half of the season was disappointing, as well as frustrating. When Kidd and Frank couldn’t see eye to eye, Frank’s role as an assistant coach came to an end. He remained on the team but now as a writer filling out reports.
Going into the new year, Kidd’s team finally seemed to get its act together. It was enough for Kidd to be recognized as Coach of the Month in January, then again in April. Upon going into the NBA playoffs, there was faint hope maybe the Nets can pull off the impossible this time.
The first round of the NBA playoffs witnessed the Nets defeat the Toronto Raptors in the first round. For Kidd, he became the first rookie coach in the league to win the seventh game during the playoffs. It was also the first time the team ever won the seventh game in a playoff series. Unfortunately, these amazing feats weren’t enough to advance any further as the Miami Heat snuffed out the Nets.
No More Kidding Around
Because of Jason Kidd’s impressive run as a rookie coach, the Milwaukee Bucks made arrangements with the Nets in the summer of 2014 in exchange for draft picks scheduled for 2015 and 2019. Taking Kidd’s place as the next coach for the Nets was Lionel Hollins. The agreement was he’d coach the team for the next four seasons.
The exchange really wasn’t to the Nets’ benefit. The first season with Hollins was shaky. Although they made it to the playoffs, they were ousted in the first round by the Atlanta Hawks. After this, it was hoped the start of 2016 would be better. As it turned out, no. Because of this Hollins didn’t last the four seasons as the team’s head coach. Billy King also stepped down as the team’s general manager. Tony Brown became the interim head coach while Sean Marks became the next general manager. The intention at this point was to rebuild the team from the ground up.
Regrouping
That rebuild began in April 2016 when Kenny Atkinson was hired as the new head coach. Going into the start of the season, it was horrific. By the time it was over, only twenty out of eighty-two games were won and the Nets finished as the worst team in the league. For the Nets, this was sort of expected as management knew the rebuilding process wasn’t going to see overnight results. This was a move that required patience and time.
It wouldn’t be until the 2018-19 season did the Nets start to look like a decent NBA basketball team. They did make it to the playoffs but once again fell short as they were defeated by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round. After this, the 2019-20 season met with certain challenges that included the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockout procedures that went with it. The Nets were among twenty-two teams invited to the NBA Bubble to take part in the final eight games of the regular season. Although the Nets made it to the playoffs again, it was quickly eliminated again, this time by the Toronto Raptors.
The 2020-21 season delivered the same results, this time losing to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. For the 2021-22 season, history repeated itself again as the Nets were taken out by the Cleveland Cavaliers, also in the first round. Since Atkinson, Jacque Vaughn first replaced him as interim coach in 2020 before Steve Nash held this spot from 2020 until 2022. Since then, Vaughn has returned as head coach as he and the Brooklyn Nets continue in their quest for the NBA championship.
Changing Hands
The financial history of the Nets saw just as much bouncing around as the team’s performance on the court. Arther J. Brown was the first owner before selling it to Roy Boe for just over one million dollars. As a team owner, he was able to do for the Nets what Brown couldn’t. He was able to put the team in New York City as its home base. That lasted until financial strain caused Boe to return the team back to New Jersey in 1977. He then sold it to a group led by Alan N. Cohen. He, along with six other men, was known as the Secaucus Seven. Together, they owned and managed the team despite encountering a series of financial obstacles until 1998.
The Nets were then sold to a pair of real estate developers. Raymond Chambers and Lewis Katz partnered up as the Community Youth Organization, hoping to move the team to Newark, New Jersey. They managed to sign an agreement with George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees. As the YankeeNets, they became a holding company that owned these two teams. Later, they added the New Jersey Devils as the businessmen worked on developing YES Network as their own broadcasting entity. This was made possible after working with various media providers such as Cablevision.
Unfortunately for YankeeNets, they were unable to work out a deal with Newark to build a new arena in its city. At the same time, tension levels among the management between the three sports teams. Since Newark wasn’t willing to work out a deal regarding the Nets, the Community Youth Organization decided to sell the basketball team. This took place in 2004 as Bruce Ratner competed against Charles Kushner to secure the team.
After Ratner was able to seize control of the Nets, the next step was to move them to Brooklyn. At the time, Jay-Z owned a piece of the team as a shareholder. From 2003 until 2013, his role as a shareholder included marketing the team in a direction that would be profitable. It was his influence that fueled the momentum to move the Nets from New Jersey to Brooklyn. Aside from owning a piece of the Nets at that time, he also had shares in the Barclays Center that were geared to accommodate the team. Jay-Z’s ownership of the Nets came to an end as his agency, Roc Nation Sports posed a conflict of interest. In order to avoid legal complications, he sold his shares of the Net to a fellow rapper, Will Pan.
Mikhail Prokhorov was also a shareholder of the Nets. He intended to become the majority shareholder and made key investments to make sure this happened. As of May 11, 2010, he was granted approval to do so. The idea behind Prokhorov’s ownership of the Nets was to further develop basketball as a sport in his native country, Russia. However, in 2017 he sold forty-nine percent of the team’s stake to Joseph Tsai. Like Prokhorov, Tsai took advantage of an opportunity to become the majority owner. As of September 2019, Tsai was approved by the NBA Board of Governors to assume full ownership of the Brooklyn Nets.
Brooklyn Pride
2022 marks the tenth year the team has been the Brooklyn Nets. Currently, its general manager and alternate owner of the team is Sean Marks. The New Zealander American has been so passionate as the team’s manager that he was wound up with a game suspension and a twenty-five thousand dollar fine. He earned this after meeting with the referees in their locker room after the Nets lost Game 4 to the Philadelphia 76ers during the playoffs. He was forced to sit out of Game 5.
Since moving to Brooklyn, the Nets have developed a strong fan following from the borough. Known as the Brooklyn Brigade, this became an official group as of November 2012, founded by Udong “Bobby” Edemeka. This came about after he noticed the new team in the neighborhood hadn’t quite developed a large crowd to flood Barclays Center yet. He made sure to change that as he grouped with fans he observed attending the first set of games on a regular basis like he was. It didn’t take long before the Nets had a loyal fan following on their hands that would eventually become recognized by the Nets.
The 2014-15 season saw the Brooklyn Nets reserve assigned seating for the Brooklyn Brigade in a section at Barclays Center, near where the press is located. It has since been classified as the BK Block. As a fan group, the popularity of the Brigade has earned them national recognition. Hopefully, that admiration is soon rewarded with an NBA championship title.
Complete History Of The Brooklyn Nets article published on ClassicNewYorkHistory.com ©2022
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