Another summer has come and gone with another Nets season about to begin under the harvest moon. Media Day is on Monday and Training Camp begins on Tuesday. The Nets ought to hope the seeds planted in the dark over this long rebuild are finally ready to bear fruit in the light.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re calling it a new era in Nets basketball after an offseason filled with noise \u2014 both good and bad. We\u2019ve said that plenty of times before, but this one is different and here\u2019s why\u2026<\/p>\n
The Knicks won the NBA Finals and in less than a month will raise a banner or two (they won the Emirates Cup as well.). It broke a cycle for Nets fans that might\u2019ve been necessary in order for the organization to move on. Maybe not. I\u2019ll get to that shortly.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn\u2019s offseason began inauspiously with the NBA lottery. You may not want to remember it, but afterwards, Joe Tsai\u2019s son was seen hugging his dad, consoling him. But then they used the sixth pick to take Mikel Brown Jr. already a fan favorite after the Summer League. Days earlier, they traded Nicolas Claxton and the No. 33 pick for three-time All-Star Julius Randle and the No. 28 pick which became Joshua Jefferson.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn added other system fits with marginal moves by signing Moritz Wagner and Keon Ellis, choosing a trio of young players, including the No. 43 pick, Tyler Bilodeau, for two-way slots. They enter training camp in a (so-far) peaceful stalemate with Michael Porter Jr. Then again, Egor Demin looked great at Summer League adding both muscle and confidence.<\/p>\n
Off the court, the team is embracing its history<\/a> more than ever. In 2020, we asked<\/a> for these things and they\u2019re doing them and more. We still don\u2019t know what the next iteration of the Brooklyn Brigade will look like, however.<\/p>\n So where do we stand less than a month before Opening Night at Barclays Center and two days before Media Day? I\u2019ve been getting questions regarding how I feel about the Knicks winning a Championship, among other things. It isn\u2019t an easy question to answer because the timing was tinged by the personal as well as feelings far beyond the baselines.<\/p>\n My first Nets game was when I was five. My father bought season tickets in 2001 when Jason Kidd was traded to the team from the Suns. I watched the team my entire life, and the good people with the Nets gave me a credential to cover the team after one season with NetsDaily \u2014 I was 18. (We\u2019ve had three younger fans cover the team since.)<\/p>\n I\u2019m no seer, but I see the way the community talks to one another and engages and can get a sense of things. Experience does that to you. Some fans are more vocal than others, more opinionated, and sometimes more nasty. There\u2019s purity taken out of being a Nets fan when you\u2019re being told how you should be a fan, especially when it encourages losing. It\u2019s annoying.<\/p>\n Then, it always feels like there\u2019s a disconnect, an up-and-down wave moving fans from highs to lows, more shock than awe. The Nets ended the 2018-19 season as a surprise sixth seed, which led to the Clean Sweep, then the so-called Big 3 and then \u2026 oh never mind. We\u2019re still dealing with that pain.<\/p>\n Now, after the tank, it\u2019s a new era, but uncertain nonetheless. You have to hope this next chapter leaves Nets fans more optimistic and encouraging when there\u2019s discourse. Still\u2026<\/p>\n Rock Bottom, Real Life, and Reevaluating the Rivalry<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason I say this. For those of you who have followed me, agreed, disagreed, liked or disliked \u2014 I am opening up about this past year as a basketball fan rooted in fandom from New Jersey. But firstly I\u2019m opening up as a human being here for the same reason as the rest of you all.<\/p>\n Personally, this past season was tough. I was working at a major social media company and NetsDaily when I started feeling pain that was debilitating and worse: it went undiagnosed for 3+ months. On January 9, 2026, I ended up in the hospital for four days with a projected three-month recovery period. When I returned, the job had disappeared<\/a>. I watched the Nets, but they were well out of it at that point, so there was no relief there. They weren\u2019t fun to watch and they weren\u2019t good. And neither was I.<\/p>\n Truthfully, after the Winter Olympics wrapped up and my recovery dragged on, I just wanted to watch something good on TV.<\/p>\n The Nets weren\u2019t that. The Flatbush 5 didn\u2019t look great outside Egor Demin, and Michael Porter Jr. wasn\u2019t much of a sell either. There was the issue of his baggage, which I felt compelled to write about<\/a>. Of course, I watched! Just like 12-70 and every other Nets season. But this past year was just so blah. There was little about the present, all about the future. Again, toxic fan discourse mixed with losing and slow rebuilding just felt so unbecoming.<\/p>\n So did a Knicks playoffs run\u2026 at first.<\/p>\n I watched the Knicks prance through the playoffs, and at first it felt like salt in the wound! But no, it was not just salty. That\u2019s a different feeling. It was downright grueling. I wasn\u2019t alive for the ABA days, so there wasn\u2019t much of a reference point but my pride as a Nets fan with all that up-and-down emotion was assaulted by what was happening at MSG.<\/p>\n The Nets and its fans have gotten totally hosed by the Knicks since the beginning. The reason the Nets lost Dr. J was because the Knicks gave them an expensive ultimatum once the NBA-ABA merger took place. Pay the Knicks a fee beyond what the other ABA teams had to pay or no NBA Since that very day, the teams have been competing for a championship even if the rivalry was absolutely dead in the water for decades! The Knicks won it because they built it the right way. No need to be jealous, just envious.<\/p>\n They did it the exact way the Nets would love to do it.<\/p>\n Something happened around playoff time. I was in a bar in North Carolina when I realized that nobody else in the bar was rooting for the Knicks. Mostly the opposite. So, for that night, I was a proud New York fan. I stopped allowing the division of the Nets-Knicks, Giants-Jets, Rangers-Islanders, and Mets-Yankees geographic rivalries. I dropped the nickname and colors of the teams. I just wanted New York sports fans to feel good about something.<\/p>\n When they won and I saw the video below, I knew the city I grew up in had finally gotten the trophy it deserved. I wouldn\u2019t \u2014 couldn\u2019t \u2014 claim it as my own. In fact, I wasn\u2019t exactly thrilled to see it \u2014 but I\u2019m a proud New Yorker who grew up there playing ball in those streets, worked my first job there, etc. I\u2019ve seen so many people online debate \u201cWhat makes a New Yorker a New Yorker?\u201d The answer is someone who doesn\u2019t need to f\u2014ing tell you they\u2019re from New York. It\u2019s obvious!<\/p>\n Even with that being said, it wasn\u2019t about the city or state pride. I was just happy that humanity had something positive that we were all focusing on. A rare flash of collective monoculture we\u2019d seemingly lost sight of in recent years.<\/p>\n Private Equity, Surveillance, and the Cost of Modern Fandom<\/p>\n There was a harsh reality in America that I couldn\u2019t ignore either watching the Knicks parade and later this offseason. Like so many others, I was fighting for health insurance particularly after the Big Beautiful<\/a> Bill kicked in. I was fighting unemployment and paying hospital bills. Basketball rivalries became quite secondary.<\/p>\n While I watched the Knicks win the championship, I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about how hard it had become to afford basic necessities. My personal issues seemed in sync with those of New York Knick fans! I couldn\u2019t believe diehard Knicks fans couldn\u2019t afford playoff tickets \u2014 not just \u201clow income\u201d folks, but those middle-class diehards who have carried that franchise through FIVE inglorious decades of losing.<\/p>\n The media focused on Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Taylor Swift in the celebrity row seats, but those star-studded courtsides weren\u2019t the cause of the price hikes, they were the billboard for MSG\u2019s executive strategy. Dynamic pricing models, corporate seating allocations, and secondary broker markups transformed iconic arenas into luxury networking lounges, pricing out the very working-class culture that gave New York basketball its soul and its history. My father got a ticket for both Game 6 of the 1986 Mets World Series and Game 7 of the 1994 Rangers by chance. Back then, you could do that. These days, you\u2019d get jumped for a free ticket.<\/p>\n Maybe those stories made me cynical. Times are different. Apples and oranges, you could argue, but it\u2019s still insulting and it should be!<\/p>\n Seeing viral clips of celebrity fans like Chalamet lightheartedly joking that Nets fans belong on a \u201cgovernment watch list<\/a>\u201c just highlighted how surreal and alienating the discourse had become. If the Knicks are so superior, why stoop so low to say such a thing? Chalamet of course wasn\u2019t alone. And while he might have engaged in good-natured ribbing, there was a lot of others who were just plain mean.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, reports surfaced<\/a> showing MSG using facial recognition surveillance to target and turn away attorneys for those in litigation with Dolan, critics, and unwanted spectators. This summer, more telling news of the franchise\u2019s arrogance: the Knicks initially planned to charge $2,000 for the worst seats in the house on the night the team will finally raise its long-sought banner. Later they claimed it was a glitch. No one believed that.<\/p>\n And in the afterglow of Jalen Brunson and O.G. Anunoby\u2019s great games, there was Dolan on TV saying he would not go over the second apron, not pay the money needed to key players while MSG Sports revenue jumped 37% and Dolan announced plans to spin off the Knicks and in all likelihood sell a big piece based on a valuation of a little less than $12 billion.<\/p>\n There are certain types of people who are hurting the game right now \u2014 and it\u2019s happening across the entire league.<\/p>\n Look at Los Angeles. Mark Walter bought controlling interest in the Lakers at a $10 billion valuation, stripped away sentimentality, let LeBron walk, and then, under criminal investigation for fraud, flipped the franchise to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for $12.5 billion. The Buss family is in court, fighting over who gets what for their remaining stake.<\/p>\n Down the road, Steve Ballmer\u2019s Clippers got hit with a $30 million fine, lost five first-round picks, and Ballmer was suspended for a year over an off-the-books salary cap circumvention scandal with Kawhi Leonard (who because of a strong union and star power escaped virtually unscathed and wound up with a two-year, $115 million contract in Toronto.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly about basketball or civic pride anymore. It\u2019s private equity, flip-and-profit portfolio management, and billionaires treating league rules like optional suggestions while everyday fans pay the bill financially and maybe more importantly, psychically.<\/p>\n Sure there have been controversies about Tsai, but as one insider said, they\u2019re boring compared to what\u2019s happening elsewhere, particularly in L.A. And you won\u2019t find facial recognition equipment at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n Embracing Brooklyn\u2019s Blank Slate<\/p>\n As noted, on a personal level, this macro shift hits against the backdrop of a brutal, humbling year. After facing sudden health scares, hospitalizations, and job loss while battling the harsh realities of the \u201csystem\u201d , the escape of basketball took on a different meaning. While Nets fans have endured a long, cynical and cyclical rebuild \u2014 complete with toxic online discourse \u2014 watching the Knicks win a championship and see two million New Yorkers flood the streets triggered a moment of clarity.<\/p>\n Even as corporate interests, surveillance, and record-high ticket prices squeeze the working-class fan out of the arena, the core reason people love basketball remains human, and rooted in local pride.<\/p>\n That brings me back to the Nets. The Big 3 is over, the race to a championship and fighting with Knicks fans over it \u2014 it\u2019s all done. Over. Finished. There is no race, nor does it seem there ever was one.<\/p>\n The Knicks winning the championship didn\u2019t make Nets fans more bitter. It just made the rivalry feel less important.<\/a><\/p>\n But maybe the hostility amongst Nets fans can finally end. Maybe fans can come into Barclays Center, the new \u201cecosystem<\/a>\u201d for the Nets and Liberty, as basketball fans with an open mind. When the Nets are good and\/or have a star who has a base, you can guarantee they\u2019ll be back and they\u2019ll be loud. For now, new fans and young fans are the target of the marketing guys.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no diss to the Knicks or by any means, expensive tickets aren\u2019t just inevitable, they\u2019re permanent. Live events are luxury events. Jokes from TV commentators, social media, WFAN radio \u2014 wherever \u2014 can call them irrelevant and they are absolutely correct, at the moment. But there\u2019s an uncomfortable fact for all of them: The Nets don\u2019t really care. Sure, Joe Tsai famously and frankly said the Knicks win was \u201cembarrassing\u201d but in the same conversation with NetsDaily<\/a>, he also said this:<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make us feel very good. It irritates our fan base and it is embarrassing but in business or in competition, in sports, or in anything, you shouldn\u2019t let the embarrassment factor affect how you perform\u2026 [We] had a plan and we\u2019re rebuilding and I think right now we are on a positive trajectory. So it doesn\u2019t change my thinking at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Those people who say the Nets should relocate \u2014 \u201cgo back to Jersey\u201d \u2014 are also undermining the value of their own market, the New York market. Yes, even when their team is oversaturating the media ahead of ring night and 34 national television games \u2014 that\u2019s exactly when a team like the Nets will sell. They are no longer running from it, they are embracing it. Whenever the Nets get there, it\u2019ll be special. And hopefully it won\u2019t be hijacked by billionaires or politicians.<\/p>\n