What will happen first: The Nets move to Brooklyn, or TJ Kidd’s grandchildren get college basketball scholarships? Tough call. The NJ Nets, who will eventually leave Eastern New Jersey and land right in the heart of Brooklyn, NJ, have been optimistic for years now that the move is only a few years away from happening, but delays keep popping up, and now it sounds like the most realistic optimistic estimate is 2011. But to me - and I care a lot about this story because I’m a NYer but don’t actually follow it closely other than the bottom-line details - even that sounds tough to pull off. I’m guessing it doesn’t happen until 2012 or even 2013, and I’m not basing that on any real info, so feel free to toss that prediction aside.
As for the news, the New York Daily News (Julian Garcia) reports:
If the Nets do manage to sign potential free agent LeBron James before the start of the 2010-11 season, it’s possible their fans in New Jersey could get the first look at him, as opposed to those in Brooklyn. The company that plans to build the team’s new home in Brooklyn acknowledged Monday that the arena may not be open until the 2010-11 season is well underway. While saying the plan remains to move the team to Brooklyn in “calendar year 2010,” a representative of Forest City Ratner - Nets owner Bruce Ratner’s company - admitted that schedule “is in fact very aggressive.
I look forward to the eventual move, because taking the subway to and from games is much easier than always having to go specifically to the Port Authority to take the bus, which is the only public transportation option to get to current Nets games.