Time for a pop quiz, New Yorkers: What was Barclays Center before it was Barclays Center?
Jose Alvarado doesn’t need time to think about it.
The Knicks guard grew up just steps from the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues — close enough to watch the area change in real time, long before an NBA arena reshaped the borough.
Long before it reshaped his neighborhood.
“[Fort Greene] got expensive,” Alvarado said after practice ahead of his first game at Barclays Center as a Knick. “My grandma still lives there, my dad’s mom. She lives in the projects right there down the street from Fort Greene. She still lives there. So me and my dad we go visit. We could walk there.
“I just remember it being a train station. Obviously, it got developed to a nice city area.”
That transformation mirrors Alvarado’s own path.
Like many New Yorkers, he didn’t grow up expecting Brooklyn to house an NBA franchise. And he certainly didn’t expect to one day return to that same neighborhood wearing a Knicks jersey.
Not after leaving the city to play at Georgia Tech.
Not after going undrafted in 2021.
Not after grinding his way into a reputation as one of the league’s most disruptive point-of-attack defenders.
And not, especially, as a hometown player crossing borough lines to play for New York.
“Nah, nah, I didn’t really think of that,” he said. “I didn’t think none of this. I didn’t think I was going to be playing for the Knicks.”
Friday marked a full-circle moment.
Alvarado logged 13 minutes in the Knicks’ one-point victory over the Nets, finishing with two points, two assists and a steal in front of a crowd filled with familiar faces — friends, family, and a community that watched him grow up just minutes from the arena floor.
For one night, the hometown kid returned as the opponent.
The villain.
And in the lead-up, the requests came with it.
“[They have] not yet, but they know that [game is] coming, and they’re going to ask for tickets soon,” he said. “I might just do it this time because it’s my first time with the Knicks in Brooklyn, but I’m usually a no guy.”
He’s learned to manage that part of the job.
Quickly.
“I set the tone of just knowing that it’s not free tickets. I definitely want to focus on the game,” he said. “So as is, I just tell them if you want to support, I’ll take care of sometimes, but you better go buy your own tickets.”
Still, there was no mistaking what the night meant.
A return home. A reminder of how far he’s come. And a chance to take it all in — even briefly — before the next game, the next city, the next moment.
“It’s cool. It’s just cool all the time to play with a Knicks jersey on,” he said, “but obviously playing at Brooklyn, playing against Brooklyn pretty special.
“Being a kid from down the street, I was raised probably 10 minutes down the street from Barclays center. So it’s going to be a lot of family members, just a good energy in there. Just have fun.”