Pacific Park, Brooklyn
The Barclays Center is the new home arena of the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, and the NHL's New York Islanders which was purchased by a group led by principal developer Bruce Ratner with the intention of making it and the arena the centerpiece of the whole project. This brought major league professional sports to Brooklyn for the first time since the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, California after the 1957 season. The arena’s design once included an ice skating rink and a green roof. An NBA basketball team now owned primarily by Russia's second richest man Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets began playing at the Barclays Center arena in 2012. Formerly the New Jersey Nets, the Nets re-branded themselves when they moved to the Barclays Center. Prokhorov is an avid basketball fan, and, with 80 percent ownership in the Nets, he has become the first Russian owner of a major U.S. professional sports franchise. The deal was necessary for Ratner, who was risking losing tax-exempt financing and the Barclays naming-rights deal if he did not break ground within three months' time.
2013–14 Brooklyn Nets season
The Nets would suffer their first defeat in 2014 to the Raptors on January 11. On January 16, the Nets would defeat the Hawks in The O2 Arena in London. The Nets would head to Madison Square Garden and blowout their cross-city rival, the Knicks, on January 20. On January 21, the Nets would the Magic, winning their third straight game. The Nets would then defeat the Dallas Mavericks by one point, and going 9–1 in 2014. On January 26, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett would go back to Boston and win their fifth straight game.