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Sorry, governor. It doesn’t look like the Nets are coming back to New Jersey, at least not now.
During a sit-down interview with NJ.com last month to mark her first 100 days in office, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was asked whether she’d support having the former New Jersey Nets and now-Brooklyn Nets return to the Garden State.
“I mean, would I support it? I ask about it all the time,” Sherrill said with a laugh.
“I love the idea,” she added during the talk at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, a quick walk from where the Nets played their last two seasons in the state. “So I have been pressing for that I haven’t made a lot of headway yet. You know, maybe in my second 100 days.”
It’s unclear if Sherrill was being 100% serious or playful, especially considering the question came during an interview-ending rapid-fire set of light questions about the state she leads.
But the New York Post reported Friday that an anonymous but “highly placed” NBA source said there are no plans for the Nets to leave the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and no talks with the Sherrill administration about it.
“They’re perfectly happy in Brooklyn,” the source told the Post.
NetsDaily reported the same, quoting an anonymous league insider who called Sherrill’s comments “very odd.”
The Nets played for 35 seasons in New Jersey, beginning in 1977. They played their first four years at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, the following 29 at the Brendan Byrne Area/Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center in East Rutherford, and the final two at the Prudential Center — nicknamed The Rock — in Newark. They moved to Brooklyn in 2012.
Sherrill added this during her NJ.com interview: “I do think there is some work being done for some — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say too much about it — but some people are working on some different sports coming into The Rock.”
She did not provide more details about those discussions.
[IMG alt="New Jersey Performing Arts Center and NJ Advance Media hosts “100 Days with Governor Mikie Sherrill”
"]https://media.zenfs.com/en/nj_com_articles_950/e2147115a796e30eba56e165ceb79b07[/IMG]
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill sits down for an interview with NJ.com at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark last month.Ed Murray| For NJ.com
The Post reported those talks have not involved the Nets or their G League — the NBA’s minor league — affiliate in Long Island.
“There have been no conversations with (Nets) ownership or leadership and the governor or her administration,” the source said, stressing there are “no plans to bring the Brooklyn Nets back to New Jersey.”
Both the Nets and Sherrill’s office declined to comment Friday.
But a source close to the Nets confirmed to NJ.com the reports about the team staying in Brooklyn are accurate.
A source close to Sherrill told NJ.com the governor would want the Nets back, though her comments last month were meant to be light-hearted.
As the Nets crossed the river to Brooklyn in 2012, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver didn’t rule out bringing another team to Newark.
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“I think Newark demonstrated that it has viability as a stand-alone market in the NBA,” Silver said at the time.
But 14 years later, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils remain the only pro team in the state’s largest city.
Of course, the New York Giants and Jets of the NFL play their games in East Rutherford and the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer play in Harrison. But none of them wear “New Jersey“ on their jerseys.
Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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