Earlier in the week Bloomberg postponed the Nets? highly promoted opener with the Knicks, a symbolic game that was supposed to showcase the new arena with high-profile names.
On the surface, the star-crossed Nets seemed snakebitten once again. While the Knicks opened at home Friday by routing the defending champion Miami Heat, the Nets celebrated their debut with a thrilling, come-from-behind victory over the Toronto Raptors.
?I wish we would have been able to play that game against the Knicks on opening night,? said Dave Anderson, the general manager of Barclays Center. ?It would have been special, and it still will be special, but all things considered, the game was secondary.?
A game against the Knicks may have been more desirable, but with their cross-borough rivals out of the picture, the Nets were able to focus on what this game meant to a nomadic franchise ever in search of its true New York roots.
After the game, Nets Coach Avery Johnson put the franchise?s opening night in Brooklyn in perspective.
?When you go back and look at the history of this game, I?m glad that I?m one of the pieces that was part of this,? he said.
?Our players have weathered the storm ? not what?s happened to us with Sandy, but the last couple of years.?
The Nets were off Sunday, but Johnson said he suggested that the players use the day ?to do something nice for people.?
He added, ?I hope we go out and do something for somebody in the community, because they need a lot of help.?
This was another leg of a nomadic journey that began for the Nets in 1967, when the franchise was founded as an original member of the American Basketball Association. The Nets opened their act in Teaneck as the New Jersey Americans, then moved to Long Island in 1968, where they played at a succession of arenas as the New York Nets.
Paced by the Hall of Famer Julius Erving, the Nets won two A.B.A. championships. In 1976, the Nets became one of four A.B.A. teams that joined the N.B.A. as part of a merger.
Erving was sent to Philadelphia to allow the team to be able to afford joining the N.B.A. The Nets moved back to New Jersey in 1977 and were renamed the New Jersey Nets. The highlights of the Nets? tenure there were successive trips to the N.B.A. finals in 2001-2 and 2002-3.
Unfortunately, the Nets played at a dud of an arena in the Meadowlands, and faced the Los Angeles Lakers with Shaquille O?Neal, and the San Antonio Spurs with Tim Duncan. Now, after 35 seasons, the Nets are back in New York. Their trademark colors of red, white and blue have been traded in for the stark, old-school black and white.
?We?re in Brooklyn now, and it?s a big difference; you saw the crowd tonight,? Johnson said. ?Even under the circumstances, not only did we have a sellout, they were into the game. They stood up for the starting lineups; they were chanting, ?Brooklyn,? all night. It?s really special.?
So the Nets have returned ? and not just any place in New York, but to Brooklyn, a borough where mourning the Brooklyn Dodgers? move to Los Angeles is an inheritance.
Some Nets fans are transplanted from New Jersey, like Jonathan Silverstein, 32, who grew up there before moving to Manhattan. Silverstein?s father was a fervent Brooklyn Dodgers fan, a passion that makes cheering for the Nets even more emotional for Silverstein.
?I was a huge Nets fan, and I?m even more of one now,? he said. ?I?m very excited. It?s a perfect fit having this team back in Brooklyn.?
This was the prevailing sentiment at the arena Saturday, though hardly a prevailing sentiment over all. For many, the Brooklyn Nets, with Jay-Z as the highly visible minority partner, are a monument to the futility of fighting wealth and power.
Silverstein?s friend Tim
Stettner said he accompanied Silverstein to the game out of friendship, not fandom. Stettner has lived in Brooklyn for eight years and followed the emotional and ultimately failed protests against the arena project.
?It?s a complicated issue,? he said. ?A lot of people say the Nets have not lived up to a lot of their promises. But it?s here, so I?m trying to enjoy it, but it?s definitely a moral dilemma.?
While the Nets revel in the magic of a new arena and laying down fresh roots, they acknowledge the many fences that must be mended. The arena is the anchor of a larger development initiative that still irks opponents of the project. Residential properties are planned to be built behind the arena.
?There are a lot of detractors with this building,? Anderson, the general manager, said. ?A lot of people pushed back on this building, so everything we do is under a microscope.?
He still sees protesters standing across the street from the arena. But all of the protests and emotion were no match for money and power. Still, as Anderson noted, Barclays Center has presented significant employment opportunities, albeit most of them part time.
?I?ve had this one guy, a pastor from a church, and I probably have 20 people who go to his church working here,? Anderson said.
He said he ran into similar opposition with the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., where he was the assistant general manager and vice president.
?Everywhere you go there?s controversy when you build one of these mega-arenas,? he said.
A native of Chicago, Anderson has extensive experience opening and operating arenas, including United Center in Chicago, Staples Center in Los Angeles and Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. He also ran the Olympic basketball arena in Beijing.
?This is the toughest building I?ve ever opened because of the dynamics,? he said. ?It means so much to a lot of people. It took eight years to get built; it?s very controversial. You really have to double- and triple-check what you?re about to do before you do it.?
Still, fans like Silverstein are happy to have a team in Brooklyn. ?I wasn?t here when the tenants had all of the issues,? he said. ?For me, this is exciting.?
Now all the Nets need are victories.
?I want to have a great arena with great people working there where people can eat great food and say, ?Man, I had a great time,??? Anderson said.
But will the Nets ever be good enough to pull Spike Lee away from his beloved Knicks and back to his Brooklyn roots?
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