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.
Sports in the New York metropolitan area
At Madison Square Garden, New Yorkers can watch the New York Knicks play NBA basketball. Through the 2017 WNBA season, the New York Liberty also played at the Garden, but that team's main home has now changed to the Westchester County Center in White Plains. The Barclays Center in Brooklyn is home to the Brooklyn Nets NBA basketball team. The Nets began playing in Brooklyn in 2012, the first major professional sports team to play in the historic borough in half a century. Before the merger of the defunct American Basketball Association with the NBA during the 1976–77 season, the New York Nets, who shared the same home arena (Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum) on Long Island with the NHL's New York Islanders, were a two-time champion in the ABA and starred the famous Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving. During the first season of the merger (1976–77), the Nets continued to play on Long Island, although Erving's contract had by then been sold to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets transferred to New Jersey then next season and became known as the New Jersey Nets, and later moved to Brooklyn prior to the 2012–13 NBA season.
The Knicks have won two NBA titles (1969–70 and 1972–73). The 1970 title was particularly memorable, as there was a question before the pivotal Game 7 in Madison Square Garden as to whether star center Willis Reed of the Knicks, who had been injured in Game 5 and missed Game 6, would be able to play. But after both teams had already begun their pre-game shooting practice and warm-ups, Reed suddenly appeared at the court in uniform before an astonished crowd at Madison Square Garden, and when the game began, he started at center and hit the first two baskets for the Knicks, inspiring his team to a 113–99 victory. Reed's inspiring appearance in Game 7 is usually considered among the most dramatic sequences in NBA history and ranks third in the NBA 60 Greatest Playoff Moments. Despite the Knicks' comparative lack of championships, NBA lore has been enriched with the team's many exciting playoff battles through the years with such fierce rivals as the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, and Boston Celtics.