Remember when the Nets moved to Brooklyn, made some smart trades and draft picks, and then overthrew the Knicks as the “real” New York basketball team?
Yeah, neither do we.
The latest chapter in the Nets’ aggressively mediocre Brooklyn era was written at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Six Knicks scored in double figures in a 134-98 rout as Brooklyn fell to 1-9 on the year. That puts the Nets in a three-way tie with the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards for the worst record in the league.
The Knicks, on the other hand, won their fourth straight and remain undefeated at home. At 6-3, they are the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and trail the top-seeded Detroit Pistons by 1.5 games. Kind of ironic considering the Nets largely made the move to Brooklyn because the Knicks were a punchline for 20 years.
But I digress. It’s been over a decade since Bruce Ratner and Jay-Z’s well-intended goal of bringing the Nets back to New York. They were, after all, two-time ABA champions as the New York Nets in 1974 and 1976. Fans flocked to Long Island’s Commack Arena to watch Julius “Dr. J.” Erving throw down his legendary dunks.
The same magic has yet to be captured at the Barclays Center, and not for the Nets’ lack of trying. Team management acquired All-Star point guard Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz, even signed him to a $99 million extension when he hit free agency in 2012. They needed a star to build around in Brooklyn, and he was their guy.
Except, nobody could have expected the Nets’ next truly boneheaded move. For some reason or another, general manager Billy King thought it was a good idea to trade four first-round picks…for the aging Celtics trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry.
As expected by anyone who knows a damn thing about basketball, this went over like bringing a charcuterie plate to brunch at Temple Beth Israel. It was never a smart idea to begin with, and yet the Nets doubled down.
Cut to five years of hopeful mediocrity under Kenny Atkinson followed by signing both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in free agency in 2019. Even with Durant sitting out the 2019-20 season to rehab a torn Achilles, there was a clear plan. Light at the end of the Brooklyn side of the Carey Tunnel.
Instead, the Nets got Kyrie’s vaccine BS and Durant’s toe costing them a trip to the Conference Finals. Plus more Durant injury struggles and woefully inept coaching from Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash. The Nets finally cut bait and dealt KD to the Suns while Irving was shipped to the Mavericks.
And how about trading the multitalented Mikal Bridges to, brace for impact, the New York Knicks? Especially with only draft capital and an aging Bojan Bogdanovic coming back.
Let’s stop sugarcoating anything and call it like it is. Not only are the Brooklyn Nets a bad team, but the move to Brooklyn has been a colossal failure from the get-go. All attempts to build a winning team have failed outright due to bad luck or injuries.
Except this failure goes beyond basketball. Because of the Nets’ inability to field a consistently successful team, they are constantly at or near the bottom of the barrel in average attendance. Their peak since Barclays opened in 2012 is ranking 13th in 2022, one year after Durant’s toe was in the worst place at the worst time.
Otherwise, the Nets have usually ranked in the mid or high 20s. In 2015-16, their average gate ranked dead last in the league.
The saddest part? We can’t put the Brooklyn genie back in the bottle. Ratner and Jay-Z having sold their minority stakes long ago, so no saviors are coming to the rescue. Too much time, energy, and money has been poured into the idea of the Brooklyn Nets.
But with no solution in sight except hoping a rebuild via draft works? The original mission has failed.
The Nets moved from New Jersey because the Knicks were awful and New York needed a legitimate basketball team.
Now, the Nets are worse off than they ever were in Jersey. Ironic indeed.
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