Nothing's being taken over, the Metro area has and always will be the Knicks territory.

personally, I am disgusted to watch Robber Ratner take NYC for money- its the super wealthy getting even wealthier at our collective expense.

I feel bad for nets fans- I've rooted for them- especially back in the day of Buck Williams, Chris Morris and Coleman and the serbian shooting guard who died tragically.

Who is going to show up for games this year? or next year? or the year after?

It was a stroke of luck that the nets were able to assemble the talent they did- trading Eddie Griffen for three picks!

Look how long the clippers and bulls have languished with cap room and draft picks aplenty and they show no signs of life.

You know, I think a lot of the NBA is about luck- getting the right players at the right time in the right mix.

The nets had some magic, and they let the genie out of the bottle and its gone. It might mayn years before they get to the finals again.

Whatever there plan is giving up 2/5 of your starting lineup for 3 1st round picks and a 2nd round pick is not good execution. Martin should have been traded for a pick and a young prospect such as Wilcox, Gooden, Nene, or somethign of that nature. Not for just 3 mid 1st round picks. Kittles was a huge expiring deal, and all they managed to get for him was a lousy 2nd round pick? That is pathetic. They should have gotten either a 1st round pick or a 2nd rounder and a prospect.

Now just watch the will mismnage Kidd's trade and only get Walker and a pick out of the deal, and wount get any prospects once again, when they should demand Josh Howard or Harris.

Also, if you knew you were dismantle the team, why not do it at draft day and trade up into the lottery to nab lottery picks while giving up your starters.

Final point, Scalabrine should not even be in the NBA. He is not a solid player. He stunk it up in the summer league once again this year after being garbage all season. Planinic is pretty bad too, he can't even dribble w/out palming or double dribbling. Its his luck NBA refs let players get away with not knowing how to handle legally.

As for Kristic, we'll see. He migth develop into something, but then again, how many highly touted Euro prospects end up total busts.

They are also planning to give a max money type extension to Richardson, so there finincial flexiblity is not all you make it be, granted they extend Richardson that way. Also, if the Nets are not willin to spend now, what makes you think they will spend in 2 years when they get a chance to sign an FA? So far I see Donald Sterling part 2, except it will be the NY Clippers this time.

you respond to every point as usual lol

The Nets will be a putrid team for years to come. What else is new? It is just false pretenses of building a championship team. That team will be filled with garbage except for Richard and Kidd. Clippers of east is most likely to happen and couldn't care less.

"xactly; and if they actually get any star players out of these draft picks, we know they won't spend the money to keep them"

How do you know that? The only reason Ratner is shedding money is becuase he makes NO MONEY in New Jersey. That's the entire point of moving the team. I'm sure once the team is moved and the fanbase in Brooklyn picks up and at least sells some games out, he'll be willing to spend money.

What's the point of just losing tens of millions of dollars and not competeting? You might as well shed cap space.

Why didn't the Knicks do this. The Nets didn't sign and trade KMart (the Knicks did w/ Ewing), they got back draft picks which will probably be at least 2/3 lottery. They have a ton of draft picks coming in the upcoming few seasons, they'll re-sign Jefferson, and what happens if they deal Kidd for Josh Howard, a first rounder, and Walker? They'll have, what?, 4 lottery picks, another mid-first rounder, and a few 2nd rounders in the next few seasons to build around Howard, Jefferson, and Kristic.

I'd rather go in that direction than take back $100 million in contracts to get Jamal Crawford. Obviously at this point it's too late and you have to do that, but the Knicks should've done what Thorn's doing now back when they had Ewing. Let him go and rebuild.

All somebody has to say is Europeans, Cap space, and draft picks and Briggs heart starts fluttering.

It takes a cornucopia of if’s for a Net's fan to have an optimistic outlook. If the draft picks they pin the hopes of the franchise on pan out. If Kristic Planinic?? develops. If the free agent market they can participate in it isn’t another one where the best options are 40 million dollar scrubs like Brian Cardinal and Adonal Foyle If they can convince free agents to come play in the swamp, or Brooklyn or wherever they are going to play at. If they get decent trade value for a weak-in-the-knee J Kidd, because he sure isnt getting any younger.

And any rebuilding project that begins with the name Scalabrine is doomed from jump.

I know one thing. They are going to be straight awful for at least this upcoming year, maybe more. There is a good possibility that after YEARS of rebuilding, they wont have a team nearly as good as the one they just dismantled.

I’ll take my chances with Zeke.

Ratner is a dumb businessman. The brooklyn fan base is not that much of a big deal like in NJ. If he wants to make a buck or two, then build a friggin arena in Newark. Brooklyn is a disaster waiting to happen. Sad.

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Ewing was at the end of his career; K-Mart hasn't reached his prime. It's apples and oranges. Do you really think the Nets can build a strong fan base in NY? It will probably take them a decade to be able to have half the fan base the Knicks do like it took the Mets when competing with the Yankees for fans"

It's still overpaying for somebody who you don't need. In the Nets case, Martin is a player who Kidd made better, he won't be an All-Star with the Nuggets. He scored probably 50% of his baskets on alley-oops and has little to no resemeblance of a post game.

In terms of a fan base, I have no idea how long it'll take, but people will go to the games. If you can take a train, cab, or bus to watch an exciting, young team play, people will go. It's about accessbility. I went to the soccer game today at the Meadowlands from Long Island. It should take 50 minutes. It took me 2 hours going there and 3.5 hours coming back because of traffic. People will watch the Nets if it's a good show, it's all about how accesible it is. Nobody feels like driving 3 hours to get to the Meadowlands. If you can take a 10 min. train costing a buck people will go.