Prudential Center
The arena was originally intended to be the home of the New Jersey Nets, but YankeeNets sold the team to Bruce Ratner, who decided he would relocate the Nets to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. However, the construction of the arena was plagued by lawsuits and economic issues during the recession. In the fall of 2009, the Nets played two preseason games at the Prudential Center, while considering a possible move there. After the success of the preseason games at the Prudential Center, the Nets finalized a deal to move to the Prudential Center. The team played for two seasons at the venue before the Barclays Center was completed in 2012 and the team officially relocated to Brooklyn. The final NBA event at the Prudential Center before the Nets' move to Brooklyn was the 2012 NBA Draft, held on June 28, 2012.
History of the Brooklyn Nets
In April 2016, the Nets hired former Knicks and Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson as the new head coach. During Nets free agency in the summer of 2016, the team started and have nearly completed their rebuilding process by acquiring through sign or trade deals the following; Randy Foye, Anthony Bennett, Trevor Booker, Luis Scola, and Jeremy Lin. However, the Nets fell below even the lowest of expectations when they secured a league-worst 8–33 record at the midway point of the season, and an 11-game losing streak with a 119–109 loss to the Raptors. The streak was the longest since their 0–18 start in the 2009–2010 season. This was partly because starting point guard Jeremy Lin had missed 29 of the 41 games played up until that point with a hamstring injury. On January 9, 2017, the Nets waived Anthony Bennett and was replaced by Quincy Acy who was given a 10-day contract. They ultimately finished 20–62, the worst record in the league. Additionally, as part of the deal that brought them Pierce and Garnett four years earlier, they had to swap their 2017 first-round pick with the Celtics.