Brooklyn Nets

Did You Know?

• The Nets were established in 1967 as a charter franchise of the ABA, the NBA's rival league.
• The Nets were one of four ABA teams absorbed into the NBA in the 1976 merger, along with the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs.
• The team moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn in the summer of 2012, becoming the first major sports franchise in the borough since the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1957.

Rivalries

The Nets' rivalry with the Boston Celtics heated up in the conference finals of the 2002 playoffs, preceded by trash talking from the Celtics, who claimed Kenyon Martin was a "fake" tough guy. Celtic fans berated Jason Kidd and his family with chants of "Wife Beater!" in response to Kidd's 2001 domestic abuse charge. When the series returned to New Jersey, Nets fans responded, with some brandishing signs that read "Will someone please stab Paul Pierce?" referring to a night club incident in 2000 in which Pierce was stabbed 11 times.

Kenyon Martin stated, "Our fans hate them, their fans hate us." Bill Walton said at the time that Nets–Celtics was the "beginning of the next great NBA rivalry." Led by Kidd, the Nets advanced to the NBA Finals, and the following year, swept Boston in the 2003 playoffs. On November 28, 2012, an altercation resulted in the ejection of Rajon Rondo, Gerald Wallace, and Kris Humphries.

Rondo was suspended for two games, while Wallace and Kevin Garnett were fined. On December 25, Wallace grabbed Garnett's shorts and the two had to be broken up by referees and players alike. In the 2019 NBA off-season, the Nets signed Kyrie Irving. During a regular season game in the 2019–20 season, Celtics fans chanted "Kyrie sucks" in TD Garden.

When the series returned to Brooklyn two days later, Nets fans chanted "Kyrie's better" in response. On May 30, 2021, after Kyrie Irving stomped on the Celtics center-court logo, a fan threw a water bottle at Irving at TD Garden following a Nets victory and a 3–1 lead in the series.

Uniforms

Upon debuting in the ABA in 1967, the New Jersey Americans wore white and red uniforms. The white uniforms contained red, blue and white stripes, with the team name and numerals in red with blue trim. The red uniforms mirror the striping configurations of the white uniforms while the city name and numerals were in blue with white trim.

Culture

The Nets' mascot history includes Sly the Silver Fox, introduced on October 31, 1997, replacing an earlier dragon mascot named Duncan the Dragon. After moving to Brooklyn, the team debuted a superhero mascot, BrooklyKnight, on November 3, 2012, co-created by Marvel Entertainment. The character appeared in a 32-page comic book, BrooklyKnight #1, written by Jason Aaron with art from Mike Deodato. The BrooklyKnight was retired after the Nets' second season in Brooklyn, leaving the team without a mascot.

On the same date, the Nets introduced a team anthem, "Brooklyn: Something To Lean On," written and recorded by Brooklyn-born musician John Forté, notable for its "Brooklyn" chant. The Brooklyn Brigade, a fan group founded in November 2012 by Nets fan Udong "Bobby" Edemeka, began when Edemeka purchased tickets for about 20 regular followers from the NetsDaily blog. Initially unrecognized by the team, the group gained support from CEO Irina Pavlova of the ONEXIM Group, though other organization members were resistant.

During the 2014–15 season, the Nets assigned the Brigade seats in Section 114 of Barclays Center, adjacent to the press booth, giving them regional and later national exposure.

Management

Former Turner Broadcasting president David Levy was named CEO of the Nets and Barclays Center but stepped down on November 12, 2019, with Oliver Weisberg, president of Tsai's holding company J Tsai Sports, assuming interim CEO duties. The franchise's original owner was trucking magnate Arthur J. Brown, who founded the team in 1967. Brown sold the team for $1.1 million to Roy Boe in 1968. After moving the team back to New Jersey in 1977, Boe sold it a year later to a group of seven local businessmen led by Alan N. Cohen and Joseph Taub, known as the "Secaucus Seven.

In 1998, the franchise was sold to a group of real estate developers led by Raymond Chambers and Lewis Katz, calling themselves the "Community Youth Organization. The next year, they formed YankeeNets with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a holding company that also included the New Jersey Devils, and later launched the YES Network.