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December 6, 2007
Two Teams Have a Lot Hanging Over Their Heads
The NY Times
By George Vecsey
A gray cloud over the Meadowlands is probably not the buzz that Ratner was hoping to generate early in the NBA season:
A gigantic steel skeleton looms alongside the arena where the Nets play, looking like an on-ramp to a freeway that does not yet exist. Apparently, it will be an indoor ski jump.
...
It’s hard to tell where the Nets are headed. Jason Kidd came down with a migraine last night and was not in uniform, which put more burden on the team’s two other stars, Richard Jefferson, who has become the focus of the offense, and Vince Carter, not strong in his second game in two nights.But where are the Nets really going? Certainly not into that weird structure hanging over the arena. The ownership is still talking of moving into an arena at the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, but shovels are not in the ground, and the planned opening at the start of the 2009-10 season has now been pushed back sometime into that season.
The Nets have painted themselves into a corner, but at least management used bright red paint, gussying up the ghastly landscape of cranes and parking garages. Their home, once called Byrne Arena, more recently Continental Arena, has been renamed the Izod Center.
The cloud probably has as much to do with the funeral of Stephon Marbury's father as Knicks' defeat of the Nets last night at the Meadowlands. From the Daily News:
In a few more seasons, the Knicks will be going to Brooklyn regularly to play the Nets, or whatever Bruce Ratner wants to call his team once it clears out of the swamps of Jersey.
But Thursday, the Knicks will go to Brooklyn for a trip that wasn't in their plans when the NBA released the schedule back in July. It's the worst kind of trip, too. The sole purpose is to pay their final respects to Don Marbury.
Posted by lumi at December 6, 2007 5:51 AM