Meet the diehard Nets fans (yes, they exist)

By Jonathon Norcross

After a tumultuous season filled with interpersonal drama, trade demands, firings, and even a controversy concerning the promotion of an anti-Semitic movie, the Brooklyn Nets were swept by the rival Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the NBA playoffs last weekend. It was the tortuous, disappointing, and perhaps inevitable conclusion to a year that should have been the best in Nets history.

Ever since they moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn in 2012, the Nets have been considered a mere little step-brother to the New York Knicks, without much of a loyal following. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay once quipped that “there are at least a solid dozen [fans]. At least.” ESPN basketball reporter Zach Lowe claimed he knew a grand total of seven Nets fans. The Nets are the team, so the narrative goes, of transplants, hipsters, and, perhaps most horrifyingly of all, the dreaded casual fan.

And yet the diehards do exist. Brooklyn Magazine set out to find the elusive Nets fan, and found a few in the Brooklyn Brigade, a diehard group founded shortly after the team’s relocation in 2012. One Brigade member, Zac Cullen, spoke to us while driving to Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, where a section of seats had been reserved for visiting Nets fans for game two of the playoffs.

“As the years have gone on, the [Brooklyn Brigade] has gotten substantially bigger,” Cullen said. “There were games where we would go and it would be like seven of us, and now at every home game there’s about 200 tickets that are allocated just for us.”

These fans seem to have a unique ability to silence the noise from naysayers and dedicate themselves to a franchise that has delivered just as many ups as downs. This roller coaster to Brooklyn began in Newark, New Jersey, where the Nets had steadily declined from the glory days of Jason Kidd and Vince Carter circa 2001 to 2007, to the decidedly darker days of Jordan Farmar and Kris Humphries circa 2010 through 2012.

“It was miserable,” said Cullen. Indeed, the last New Jersey Nets game attended by the writer of this article was a double-digit loss that included a cascade of boos when “Jersey Shore” star Pauly D was shown on the Jumbotron. But even then, at the team’s arguable lowest, the fans persisted.

“We still had a team in Jersey that we were proud of, especially watching the development of Brook Lopez,” says a Brigade member who goes by the name Marsh. “But when they moved to Brooklyn, I was actually happy for a fresh start, and I was happy for us to really solidify an identity that wasn’t the junior metropolitan team.”

Courtesy the Brooklyn Brigade

From the Garden State to Kings County
The Nets did establish a new identity for themselves, utilizing bonafide Brooklyn icons such as Jay-Z (at one time, a co-owner of the team), the Notorious B.I.G., and Jean-Michel Basquiat to inject the franchise with some personality.

The Nets constantly emphasized what made their new home unique, from Basquiat-style uniforms to subway tile court designs to homages celebrating their pre-NBA days when they were Julius “Dr. J” Erving’s New York Nets on Long Island.

“It’s all these different, cool ways of showing what Brooklyn is all about,” says Doug Bearak, a longtime Brigade member. “The borough of Brooklyn is such a diverse place, a mosaic of people.”

So the Nets were quick to adopt (co-opt?) some style, sure, but still needed a little substance. The team selected Billy King as their general manager in 2010, and the results of his tenure (198 wins and 278 losses) were not exactly what one would call spectacular. He assembled a superteam roster of aging star players who were shining much duller than before.

“It was like making a split-second decision that had an everlasting impact,” says Marsh.

Bearak offers this analogy: “I compare it to a glass cannon, and what happens with a cannon that’s made of glass is that it shoots a few times and then cracks and then eventually breaks. You’re stepping on all those pieces, feeling the pain of rebuilding.”

The pain of rebuilding the franchise would be left to King’s successor, Sean Marks, who became the Nets’ new general manager in 2016. Marks initially took a slow and steady approach, acquiring younger talent and draft picks. He redefined what the Nets were, no longer a laughing stock but a force to be reckoned with. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving became interested in moving to Brooklyn. When Marks acquired the two superstars — and later James Harden — it felt like this squad could be the greatest basketball team ever constructed. Until it all spectacularly fell apart. A toxic swirl of coronavirus, injuries, and egos resulted in the breakup of the second Nets superteam earlier this year.

Now, Marks has been tasked yet again with rejuvenating these Brooklyn ballers. But rather than be defined by repeated failures to capture an NBA title, the realest of real Nets fans say they love the journey nonetheless.

“We’ve heard so many times that better days are coming,” says Marsh, “But just remember that a big part of the Nets’ success is us filling up the seats and being loud for our team, regardless of who they’re playing. As long as we do that, our team will be successful.”

Bearak echoed the sentiment. “It doesn’t matter who is on the court. I’m gonna walk away from Barclays and love being there, win or lose,” he says.

It doesn’t sound like he’s alone, either. Gate receipts for the 2021–2022 season were an all-time high: $76 million. In 2021, the Nets sold the second-most merchandise of any NBA team. Earlier this year, the franchise was valued at $3.6 billion, making it the fourth most valuable team in the NBA.

Of course, the most valuable team is still the New York Knicks, a reminder that the Nets always seem to be playing in the shadow of their big brother. But if there is one significant difference between these two New York franchises that everyone seems to ignore, it’s that history might be with the Knicks, but the future could very well be in Brooklyn.

“If you look at the Knicks and Nets fanbases, they’re very different. Nets fans are going to come from the younger generation,” says Cullen.

Case in point: On Instagram, where nearly 70 percent of users are between the ages of 13 and 34, the Nets have 4.8 million followers, while the Knicks have only 3.7 million.

And then there’s the vibe in and around Barclays Center itself. “Something I really love about Barclays,” Bearak says, “is I feel like it’s become the literal heart of Brooklyn.”