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September 24, 2012
Stephen Witt lets us in on some spoilers from his new novel
MEET THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING THE NETS TO BROOKLYN
Brooklyn Daily
by Will Bredderman
Here's a new take on the Atlantic Yards creation myth, courtesy of the man who never let reality get in the way of his "reporting" on Atlantic Yards.
Former Courier Life reporter and longtime busker Stephen Witt says he is responsible for bringing the Nets to Brooklyn, but that doesn’t mean his second novel, “The Street Singer,” the tale of a subway performer who gets an arena built in his home town, is the story of his life . How do we know? Because reporter Will Bredderman had a chat with him about his new tome. Here’s how it went down:
Will Bredderman: So how did you get the Nets to come to Brooklyn?
Stephen Witt: I covered Borough President Markowitz’s first state of the borough address, and he talked about getting a basketball team to move to Brooklyn. So I took it upon myself to call the NBA to see if the Knicks had an exclusive on Brooklyn. I asked if there could be a new team in Brooklyn and the NBA said no, there could only be a move. But at that time, the Nets were in the finals, and they weren’t filling their stadium, so I called the Nets owner, Lewis Katz, and I asked if he’d be willing to move the team. He said he wasn’t against it, so I called Marty and I said, “Call this guy, I think he’ll move the team.” And I gave Marty the guy’s number. Marty gave me a call in February of 2003 and told me “I really think I hooked a big fish.” I wrote an article for the Village Voice about it, and that’s how it all got started. A couple months later they made the big announcement.
NoLandGrab: Norman Oder might have to start referring to him as the "delirious Stephen Witt."
Posted by eric at September 24, 2012 1:19 PM