BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
For seven years, Barclays Center has been where the Nets play basketball.
A beautiful structure, built for basketball, yet much like the Billy King Nets, something about the vibe inside the arena felt forced, even unnatural. Chants were forced onto fans, war cries didn’t stick. The feel in the arena resembled the team on the floor, inorganic and passionless.
From the moment Sean Marks took over, he built the organization organically, not skipping any steps, as he would say over and over. Without much draft capital, he found a way to draft under-valued talent (Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen), develop the few pieces he could get his hands on (D’Angelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie, Joe Harris), and welcome every person, from the front office down, into the Nets family with open arms.