{"id":172405,"date":"2026-03-23T18:12:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172405\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T18:12:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:12:43","slug":"nets-west-indian-night-helps-highlight-diverse-brooklyn-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172405\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets\u2019 West Indian Night helps highlight diverse Brooklyn culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/J81_0562-1.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"Nets West Indian Night\" decoding=\"async\"   title=\"Nets' West Indian Night helps highlight diverse Brooklyn culture 1\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Brooklyn Sports &amp; Entertainment<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn Nets celebrated Caribbean heritage at its West Indian Carnival game on March 10, bringing together community and culture despite a loss to the Detroit Pistons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The celebration was part of the organization\u2019s Nets Unite platform, which aims to represent the many cultures that make up the borough. Caribbean heritage significantly shows up in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Flatbush and Crown Heights, making up the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/littlecaribbean.nyc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Little Carribean.<\/a>\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe West Indian culture of Brooklyn is such an integral part of the fabric of what makes Brooklyn, Brooklyn,\u201d said Jackie Wilson, the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Senior Vice President for Social Impact, to amNewYork.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fans arriving at the game were welcomed by stilt walkers immediately after scanning their tickets. Throughout the concourse, fans could celebrate Caribbean music courtesy of DJ KING SZN or, around the corner, steel drums. J\u2019ouvert performers danced to the music, representing the vibrant, pre-dawn street party that annually marks the beginning of the Caribbean Carnival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Nets partnered with the Live Carnival Association and the West Indian American Day Carnival Association for the celebration, according to Wilson. Other aspects included the National Anthem sung by St. Lucian singer Ashley Skerritt and a halftime show from Guyanese-American and Brooklyn native rapper Red Caf\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo much of our culture gets lost when we come to the United States,\u201d said Daynia La-Force, mother of Nets forward Terance Mann and St. Lucia native, to amNewYork. \u201cAny opportunity we have to show our pride, our national colors, we really want to take advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>La-Force, who is also the executive director of the Terrance Mann Complete Player Foundation, participated in a panel discussion before the game with Inspiring Minds, a community organization that provides mentorship and after-school programs to disadvantaged youth. The organizations partnered to donate shoe vouchers to students in Flatbush.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mann, who is a \u201cdamn proud St. Lucian,\u201d according to his mother, is one of multiple Brooklyn Nets players with West Indian roots. Brooklyn Nets forward Nic Claxton\u2019s father was born in St. Thomas, and Claxton represents the U.S. Virgin Islands men\u2019s basketball team in international competitions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYouth aspire to what they see,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cSeeing someone with these roots, seeing themselves reflected on the court, it all just changes how students, young and old, aspire and dream.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Brooklyn Sports &amp; Entertainment The Brooklyn Nets celebrated Caribbean heritage at its West Indian Carnival game on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,21,4475,9,24,63,319],"class_list":["post-172405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}