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December 23, 2009
The Year That Wasn't: What Didn’t Happen in 2009
Gotham Gazette
By Gail Robinson
The Nets did not play in Brooklyn
This was the year the NBA New Jersey Nets were slated to make the move from the Meadowlands and open the 2009-2001 season in Brooklyn. The team, under the ownership of Bruce Ratner, would play in the edgy Frank Gehry-designed Barclay Center at Atlantic Yards.The Nets still may move to Atlantic Yards. But not until 2012. And when that happens Bruce Ratner will not own the team. He sold it to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who anted up $200 million to essentially buy the team and perhaps save the beleaguered Atlantic Yards project in the process. In June, beset by an array of financial problems and legal challenges, Ratner scrapped Gehry's arena plans and brought in Ellerbe Becket, an architectural firm based in Kansas City. So instead of playing in an architectural landmark, the Nets will slam dunk (or try to) in an arena that one observer said "looks a lot like every other stadium we've ever seen."
Fans may not care. The Nets opened this season with a record of no wins and 18 losses, the worst start in NBA history, and have not improved much since.
NoLandGrab: Actually, the original plan was for the Nets to play in Brooklyn in 2006.
Posted by lumi at December 23, 2009 5:15 AM