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March 12, 2010
New Jersey's Loss, Brooklyn's Gain?
Or is it the other way around?
The Star-Ledger, Barclays Center groundbreaking signals beginning of end of NBA basketball in New Jersey
So Ratner was happy. His basketball team is monumentally bad, and that’s on his permanent record, but he was happy.
If you’re detached from all this, it was strange watching him. He was always a better guy than the fans and media depicted him, even if his aims aren’t always as altruistic as he claims to be. He and his powerful friends kept referring to this groundbreaking as a beginning, but if you live two bridges away — as most of us do — you get a completely different impression.
It is really an ending.
Trivia: The words “New Jersey” were uttered exactly once Thursday, and only in passing by Gov. David Paterson, as he bemoaned the loss of his beloved ABA champs to Piscataway.
There’s no sense getting maudlin about it like Paterson did, because it’s just a fact: More than anything else, this groundbreaking represented the beginning of the end of NBA basketball in New Jersey, the end of whatever emotional investment you might have in the Nets, even the end of Ratner, whose managing role expires “in two more months, probably,” he said.
NY Daily News, Bruce Ratner defends decision to move New Jersey Nets deep into New York Knicks territory
The Nets, who are wrapping up their final campaign at the Meadowlands, are slated to spend the next two seasons playing at the Rock in Newark while the Brooklyn arena is being built. And though there have been whispers that the team could stay in New Jersey beyond that time frame if the Barclays Center is not completed, Ratner emphatically said there was "no possibility" of that happening.
"Once construction starts, which is now, the timetable holds," he said.
NoLandGrab: That's Bruce, always sticking to the timetable.
Bergen Record, Editorial, The Record: Forget Nets, go Grizzlies?
On Thursday, the earth moved in Brooklyn. The tremors could be felt in Newark and the Meadowlands. The Nets are closer to leaving New Jersey.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the long-delayed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn was more than symbolic. After years of delay, the massive development, which if built as proposed will include a sports arena, housing, retail and commercial office space, is closer to reality. It will no longer be the architectural destination that might have been if Frank Gehry's vision for the development had survived the financial setbacks and a recession. But it matters little to us in New Jersey if Brooklyn is committed to mediocre architecture. What matters is not that the Nets are leaving New Jersey, but rather whether a new NBA team may come to New Jersey.
WCBS 880 via NewJerseyNewsroom.com, Chris Christie on N.J.’s budget crisis, bringing an NBA team to Newark
PAT CARROLL: Any thoughts about the ground being broken today for the New Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, the new home the Nets?
GOVERNOR CHRISTIE: Well listen, you know that the Nets for the next two years, because of a deal that we made in our administration will be moving to the Prudential Center in Newark. And listen I am still continue to be hopeful, that the Nets might stay in New Jersey, but even if they don't I think we now have a facility at the Prudential Center that will be showcased for other NBA teams for the next two years. And I think there might be some other NBA teams that might want to come to New Jersey and play in a beautiful place like the Prudential Center, so we're going to keep all of our options open to continue to have NBA basketball in New Jersey.
Posted by eric at March 12, 2010 11:28 AM