The Nets Run New York: My First NBA Experience
I was fortunate enough to catch the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Night on opening night as they took on the Minnesota Timberwolves. I snagged some decently inexpensive upper deck tickets and headed down for my first ever NBA game.
For some background and just to put it out there, I am NOT a Nets bandwagon fan. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled when they signed superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, but I have been a fan since I was 9 or 10 years old, back in the New Jersey days. I’m just too young to remember their Eastern Conference championships years, as I started my fandom when on the tail end of those years. I began to be interested in basketball when they started to unload Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter, etc. and they began to make their way to the bottom of the conference standings with the Knicks. My elementary school/middle school years were me watching the Nets finish with somewhere in between 15–25 wins, with Devin Harris and Deron Williams as their main “stars”. These years consisted of no competitiveness whatsoever, the bottom of the standings finishes, and not even capitalizing on having high draft picks. It was ultimately pathetic.
It was when they moved to Brooklyn when I was in high school that things really starting spiking my attention again. The brand new arena, the Barclays Center, new logo and uniforms, made the Nets somewhat worth paying attention to again. Then came “the trade”. For whatever reason, the Nets made a blockbuster trade, acquiring somewhat washed up Celtics stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce for a whole lot of no-names and 3 (!!!) first-round draft picks. As you might imagine, Garnett and Pierce did not pan out in Brooklyn as expected but was still an attention-grabber for the fans, putting them on the court beside Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and Joe Johnson. The Nets ended up not doing much in terms of contending this ended up being all but a disaster for Brooklyn.
But somehow, someway, the year is now 2019, and the Nets are back in the driver’s seat. Fresh off a season with a playoff berth, they are back to potentially contending for a conference title. Even without top draft picks for the past 5–6 or so years, Brooklyn was able to put together some key pieces to make a dangerous team. Led by PG D’Angelo Russell (who is off to the Warriors now), Caris Levert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (in Toronto now), Joe Harris and more, the Nets front office carefully made sneaky acquisitions and draft picks with what they had to assemble quite the squad. This past summers free agent frenzy was when the Nets struck gold, as stars Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and DeAndre Jordan all decided to come to Brooklyn and sign with the up and coming Nets. This is a new Nets look, a large market team coming for what it deserves. Fan popularity is spiking, the city now has big names, and New Yorkers are ready to bring a title back to the Big Apple.
That being said, I had a blast attending my first ever NBA game. It was an absolute thriller, as Kyrie Irving dropped 50 points, but Brooklyn ultimately came up short in overtime, 127–126. The Nets came back from a 15+ point second-half deficit as the entire 4th quarter people were on their feet and loudly cheering as the game went back and forth. There were moments of thrill, relief, and heartbreak as it was an absolute roller coaster to watch. All I can say is the fan support is certainly there, and I cannot wait to go back to cheer on the team that I have followed since I was young.
-Brandon Zapotoski
Sports Throne Founder
