The Brooklyn Nets Are Officially Born

This recently leaked logo may be the Brooklyn Nets official one, but we won't be sure until Monday morning

As of right now (12:00 am EST on Monday, April 30th), the Brooklyn Nets are officially a member of the NBA and the New Jersey Nets are gone. This moment is a landmark for the Nets franchise as the much-excited move to Brooklyn has been in the works for years now and is sure to help the Nets be more successful than during their 35 years in New Jersey. This also means that Brooklyn Balling is now a Brooklyn Nets blog as opposed to a New Jersey Nets one. It also means that in a few hours (at roughly 6:50 am on CNBC) the Nets' new jerseys, logo, and team identity will be revealed by Nets CEO Brett Yormark. Congratulations fellow Nets fans, we have been waiting for this day and time to come for years now and its finally here. Now, as the blog has stated since January, the Nets are "Brooklyn Balling".

Game 66 Recap: Toronto Raptors 98, Nets 67

Goodbye New Jersey Nets, and hello Brooklyn Nets. In the last game ever of the new Jersey Nets franchise, an oddly-mixed collection of NBA and D-League players took the floor for both the Raptors and Nets, both teams decimated by injury. I guess the Toronto collection of guys, led by former Net Ben Uzoh and his first career triple-double, just wanted the meaningless win more than the people (not good enough to be a team) they faced at the Air Canada Center.

Other than the official farewell to the New Jersey Nets--which kinda sounds weird now---this game didn't hold much intrigue. However, the loss did help the Nets leapfrog the Raptors in the lottery standings, giving New Jersey/Brooklyn a slightly better chance of landing in the 3-spot and enabling it to keep its pick from the Trail Blazers. Tanking at its best! Plus, I know I kept tonight's recap short but don't worry as Brooklyn Balling will have more analysis and commentary on this past Nets season and what is ahead. Also, the next time we will see a team resembling the Nets will be in October of 2012, in a preseason game possibly at the Barclays Center. See you then Johan Petro!

Game 66 Preview: Nets (22-43) at Toronto Raptors (22-43)

Goodbye, see you guys in Brooklyn

That's all folks. In the last game of another much-maligned Nets season, the team takes on the Toronto Raptors, another lottery team, in what is officially the last game ever of the New Jersey Nets. Tonight will be bittersweet for anyone that is a Nets fan because we have to wait until October of next year for basketball in Brooklyn in addition to the fact that the last time that Deron Williams is on the Nets could be tonight as he might leave the team this offseason as a free agent. However, the biggest feeling that Nets fans should be feeling is excitement because, as mentioned above, the next Nets game after tonight will not include the New Jersey Nets but instead it will be the Brooklyn Nets.


Oh yeah, the actual game. In terms of playoff chances, this game means nothing for both teams but it has incredibly coincidental lottery implications. The Nets and Raptors have exactly the same record right now so the winner's lottery chances will be worse than the other. Honestly, that's why I don't necessarily want the Nets to win because I would rather take the slight increase to our chance of getting our 1st-round pick this year than a meaningless April win. Sorry for all the people who want the Nets to get that elusive 23rd win of this condensed season. 


Background on Toronto

Toronto, like the Nets, is missing a ton of their good players due to injury so there really isn't much healthy talent to talk about on this Toronto team right now other than  DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, and possibly Ed Davis. Another thing to note; former Net Ben Uzoh is on Toronto and might even start tonight. If you don't remember Uzoh's relatively short tenure with the Nets, then you didn't miss much. In 42 games last season, the Tulsa graduate scored just 3.8 points per game in around 10.4 minutes per. Not exactly lighting up the scoreboard, huh?

Brooklyn Nets Logo Leaked?

Yep, it looks like it. Deadspin, along with other sites, is reporting that this image above will be the new logo for the Brooklyn Nets. Supposedly, some guy on Twitter that is working IT at the Barclays Center site snapped this photo of an office wall at the facility. Maybe this is some sort of publicity stunt by the Nets but I think it might be the real thing and I kind of like it, other than the fact that it is missing red, which is one of my favorite jersey colors. 

I would love to see the jerseys for this logo which will probably be announced on April 30th which is the date that Nets' management set for the official release of the team's new logo. If this isn't the real thing, than we can hope that the real thing is nearly as good as this. If this is indeed the real thing, then the Nets got it right and the Brooklyn Nets' inaugural jerseys will be awesome. #HelloBrooklyn

Game 65 Recap: 76ers 105, Nets 87

Goodbye Prudential Center and as Chris Christie said, good riddance.

Well, that was a fitting end to the Nets' extremely unsuccessful New Jersey existence. An extremely undermanned Nets squad stayed close throughout with the playoff-bound 76ers but just faded away late. The final score was an aberration for how this game played out much of the night in the last time the New Jersey Nets, or any other team for that matter, played a game in the state of New Jersey itself. It was a very emotional night at the Prudential Center as the team honored a bunch of former Nets at the half-time, some of which have passed on, have fallen on hard times, or are even in playoff situations with other teams.

Back to the game. Just needed a win or Milwaukee loss to clinch the 8th-seed in the East (they got both by the way), Philly raced out of the gates to a big 25-11 lead in the 1st quarter looking like a team that didn't want to just back into the playoffs. However, the Nets didn't want to roll over in their last home game in New Jersey and fought themselves back into the game in the 3rd quarter, cutting the 76er lead to one at the 3:44 mark of the period on a Gerald Wallace jumper.

Wait, you didn't think that the Nets would be able to sustain that intensity for the rest of the game right? Well, if you thought that then you would be wrong. By the end of the 3rd, Philly had built a 76-68 cushion and held onto that lead for the last 12 minutes of the game until blowing it completely open in the waning minutes of the Nets' New Jersey experience. Truthfully, what more could you expect from a team missing so many key players due to injury.

As always with this team, there was a lot negative to last night's game but there was a silver lining as well. First off, I think we've found our replacement for the extremely unreliable Sundiata Gaines and his name is Armon Johnson. The Nets' recent call-up from the D-League scored 10 points in 23 of play off the bench last night but his best contributions couldn't be quantified in the box score. He played great defense on Lou Williams and Jrue Holiday (combined for 9-24 shooting), ran the offensive sets well without mistakes (just one turnover), and even picked up the intensity and effort of his fellow teammates.

Game 65 Preview: Philadelphia 76ers (33-30) at Nets (22-42)

This guy (Kenny Anderson) will be at the ceremony while Jason Kidd will make an appearance via video. We really could have drafted Dikembe Mutombo instead of Anderson but of course the Nets drafted the guy with the shorter and much less effective career. Good riddance New Jersey!

Well, here it is. Tonight will be the last NBA game in New Jersey for the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets and probably the last one in the state for a long, long time, if not forever. I will be at the game and am less excited about the actual game (Philly has something to play for while the Nets haven't for a few weeks) than I am about the half-time ceremony honoring the many characters/basketball players and personnel that played a big part of the team's crazy 35-year tenure in the Garden State.

After tonight, the next Nets home game will be in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, hopefully with Deron Williams (and maybe Ersan Ilyasova or Ryan Anderson? Eh, maybe not, I might be getting my hopes up.) Whoops, back to the actual game. D-Will and Shelden Williams probably won't be able to go while Gerald Wallace looks to be good to go. The 76ers don't have any major injuries.

Background on Philadelphia

The Nets beat the 76ers in Philadelphia just 10 days ago so not much has changed with this team since them. They are still oddly centered around the bench players to a certain extent with key contributors in Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young, and Spencer Hawes all out of the starting line-up. The way to beat Philly is to contain the bench because when the bench is limited, the starting line-up becomes less effective and voila, the 76ers become beatable.

Houston Rockets Eliminated From Playoff Race, Keep Their Lottery-Protected 1st-Round Pick

By losing to the Miami Heat on Sunday afternoon, the Houston Rockets have been eliminated from contention for the 8-seed in the Western Conference and will spend another season not in the playoffs. Normally, this news would mean nothing to Nets fans but it actually is very important because by missing the playoffs and entering the lottery, the Rockets keep their protected-1st rounder that they traded to the Nets for Terrence Williams last season. This means that the Nets might not have a 1-round pick in this year's draft. On the bright side, the pick rolls over the next season and is once again lottery-protected so if Houston finally makes the playoffs, the Nets get their 1st-rounder.