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Nuthin’ but Brooklyn: Nets’ Kings County migration complete with Sunset Park training facility’s opening

Nuthin’ but Brooklyn: Nets’ Kings County migration complete with Sunset Park training facility’s opening
Reid B. Kelley

The Nets can finally practice like they play — in Brooklyn.

The former New Jersey team finished relocating to the Borough of Kings — more than three years after the team’s first tip-off at Barclays Center — when the organization opened its training center at Sunset Park’s Industry City on Feb. 17. The squad’s owner was glad to finally leave the so-called “Garden State” behind for good, he said.

“At last, this day has come,” Mikhail Prokhorov said. “The Nets are 100-percent a part of Brooklyn.”

The facility, a little larger than a football field, occupies the top floor of one of Industry City’s waterfront buildings and houses two full-length basketball courts, a weight room, therapeutic pools, a rooftop entertainment space, and a players’ lounge with an 18-seat movie theater. The practice court also features a panoramic view of Brooklyn and distant Manhattan, which even wowed the team’s towering, 7-foot center.

Slam dunk: Nets players and owner Mikhail Prokhorov were on hand for the opening of the team’s new training center in Sunset Park.
Photo by Steve Schnibbe

“Look at that view,” Brook Lopez said. “You got to love the view.”

The eight-season Net couldn’t wait to hang out in the lounge and play arcade games such as NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, he said.

“It’s a great day — it’s like Christmas,” Lopez said. “I know I am going to be staying hear a lot. It’s kind of like a second home for me.”

The Nets squad — which is 14–40, second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, and whose head coach just got the sack — doesn’t plan on hogging the training center. The organization plans to host basketball clinics, business-development functions, and offer internship opportunities for Sunset Park students, officials said.

Nets nest: The players’ lounge is a big draw for the team.
Photo by Steve Schnibbe