Kris Humphries and Nets CEO Brett Yormark toured the Barclays Center construction site in Brooklyn yesterday. While a number of reporters seemed to focus on the possibility that other elements of the Atlantic Yards Development are nowhere close to being completed, Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal put together a fun little article about the Nets move to Brooklyn:
But this is going to be a jarring shift for New Jersey. The Nets have long been tormented by their address; asking New Yorkers to come out to a Nets game is like asking them to help you move. Now Team Afterthought is set to plunge to the Red Hot Center of the Cultural Universe, the land of Talib Kweli and the Jonathans Ames, Lethem and Safran Foer.
Just wait: That first season, they are going to be spectacularly trendy. Everyone you know is going to go at least once. It will be weird.
I’ve said on here before that I think the Nets are going to get a two-to-three year grace period where they’re going to draw in Brooklyn no matter what – because they’ll be new and they’ll be the first professional sports team in a city that hasn’t had one in more than 50 years. Eventually, they’re going to have to be good – and maybe they will be. At least there’s another season and change to find out.
