History of the Brooklyn Nets
After the dismissal of major pending lawsuits, groundbreaking for Barclays Center occurred on March 11, 2010.
On September 26, 2011, Jay-Z, the Nets' minority owner, announced that the team's new name after the move to Brooklyn would be the Brooklyn Nets. The team officially became the Brooklyn Nets on April 30, 2012. The team's new colors were announced to be black and white, and two official logos designed by Timothy Morris were unveiled. The primary logo is a shield depicting the team name 'Nets', along with a basketball with an overlaid "B". The secondary logo is the same "B-ball" surrounded by a black circle with the text "Brooklyn" and "New York". The new logo's typeface and colors are meant to evoke New York City Subway rollsigns from the 1950s when Brooklyn last had a major league sports team. This rebranding of the team led to a dramatic increase in merchandise sales for the team. On the first two days that the new merchandise was available, total sales from the NBA Store were 10 times that of a typical year when the team was in New Jersey, and in the initial months of the 2012–13 season, the Nets led all NBA teams in apparel sales.
History of the Brooklyn Nets
On March 29, 2010, the Nets defeated the San Antonio Spurs for the first time since the 2003 NBA Finals. The win was their 10th of the season, keeping them out of the record books for the worst season of all time, a distinction held by the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats. Still, the Nets finished with a 12–70 record, becoming only the fifth team to lose 70 games in a season, shared by the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers (9–73), 1986–87 Los Angeles Clippers (12–70), 1992–93 Dallas Mavericks (11–71) and 1997–98 Denver Nuggets (11–71).
On February 18, 2010, the Nets finalized a deal that would move them to Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The Nets would begin playing in Newark in the 2010–11 season and remain there until Barclays Center opened in Brooklyn. There was significant optimism going into the off-season, especially as the Nets began promoting their "It's All New" campaign while looking forward to a new home, new owner, new coach, and new players. They also held the best chance of landing the top pick in the 2010 NBA draft, with which John Wall was eventually drafted. However, luck would once again not be on the Nets' side, as on May 18, 2010, the Nets received the third overall pick in the draft; they selected Derrick Favors, a power forward out of Georgia Tech.