When the New Jersey Nets game ended Monday night, Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" blared over the loudspeakers at the Prudential Center in Newark.
When the Nets play their next home game, expect "Brooklyn (Go Hard)" - from Nets co-owner Jay-Z - to be the song of choice.
That's because the NBA team ended their 35-year run in New Jersey on Monday night with a 105-87 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Come fall, the team will become the Brooklyn Nets and play their games in the brand-new Barclays Center in the New York borough.
The Nets have one more game to play representing New Jersey - Thursday night against the Raptors in Toronto - before this season ends, but Tuesday morning, even the team's website was looking ahead to the 2012-13 season, displaying a blank logo on a black background with the Twitter hashtag "hellobrooklyn."
A sell-out crowd watched Monday night's loss to the 'Sixers, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasn't there to give the franchise a nice sendoff.
âYou donât want to stay, we donât want you,â he said at press conference earlier Monday. âIâm not going to be in the business of begging people to stay here.
"Good riddance! See you later," Christie wished the Nets.
Others seemed to have moved on, too.
The sports front page of nj.com, the website of the Newark Star-Ledger, put the story of the Nets final home game in the city, in the 10th position, below even two items on the New York Knicks. The story was eight paragraphs long.
The mood was a bit better among the 18,711 patrons in the Prudential Center Monday night. The team brought back some its biggest stars, including Derrick Coleman, Kenny Anderson, Albert King and Kendall Gill, for the game. Current Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd, regarded as the best player in the Nets' history, recorded a message.
âBeing a Net was a great time of my career,â Kidd said, according to a report in The Record of Bergen County. âAnd a great honor.â
Fans gave loud cheers when highlights of the team's two runs to the NBA Finals were shown, according to an ESPNNewYork.com report. But those finals runs ended in losses, just like more than 1,600 other games in the Nets record books.
And shortly after the cheers of "Let's go Nets" faded into silence Monday night, the Nets were indeed gone.
âKnowing that (the franchise) is not going to be here anymore, itâs definitely a sad day,â Coleman told The Record. âJust for the people here in the state of New Jersey. ⊠itâs never going to be the same because itâs not here in Jersey.â
Star Ledger writer Dave D'Allesandro, penned the New Jersey Nets obit at the top of his column Tuesday morning.
"Pro basketball died here tonight after a long and excruciating illness. For much of its 35 years in New Jersey, it was an athletic institution paralyzed by trauma, triggered by a chronic gaucherie with spasmodic bouts of semi-competence.
"It is mourned by a few thousand fans who cared enough to notice the Nets for 41 nights a year, a few thousand others who liked the idea of good seats at discounted prices, a handful of newspaper guys now sentenced to watching that insufferable college game, and a mayor still holding out for a share of the parking revenue.
"The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Nets Center for Disease Control in support of those who suffer from the same masochistic devotion to blowouts and monumental failure."
Isn't saying "Good riddance" to a sports team a bit beneath a governor's dignity?
He ate his dignity a long time ago.
It's Chris Christie. He believes that dignity shouldn't outweigh honesty.
what dignity? Does that obnoxious blog know what the word means??
He has no dignity.
You can't expect more from Christie. People of NJ got what they voted for. No class.
Christie has no dignity!
Begging? He gave the Revel casino over $200 million...
What a typical hypocritical politician!!!
He spends more than that on food a week.
Does it really matter? New York or New Jersey? Two sh%t states that nobody but the sorry folks that live there give a crap about!
Where ya from Danny?
Hey Dan: While we all appreciate your hatred, I just wonder where it comes from? Generally speaking, when I spout hate of a person, place or thing as you just did, it's because that person place or thing makes me feel inadequate for any number of reasons. Fortunately, this doesn't often happen anymore. Have a great day, buddy!
I'd love to know what amazingly immune to criticism state you're from.
New Jersey should say good riddance to Sr Christie.
That russian dude who owns the Nets? He can rap, look for the video. Best video EVAR!!!!!
Pelé
It is ironic that Gov. Christie cares so little about the NJ Nets considering they were formed 35 years ago when he and I were both stinking up a public bathroom in East Rutherford.
"In lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Nets Center for Disease Control in support of those who suffer from the same masochistic devotion to blowouts and monumental failure" – are these anything like the ones in San Diego, Hartford, and Montreal (and, reportedly, soon to open a branch in Sacramento)?
should read New Jersey ends 35 years of Nets
God saw fit to put the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, and we in New York are thankful for that!
I can't wait until the day the NBA is finally done. It's a cesspool of overgrown barbarians sweating and grunting for millions of dollars doing no good for anyone. Their purpose is to entertain us, yet it is the people who are the ones paying them more than they are worth. We make them, we can break them. They are leaches on the shoestring budget of society. #AllProfessionalSports
Meh. They should have played "No sleep 'till Brooklyn" though...
The team was instructed to leave any unwnated items and garbage in New jersey. It's end up there anyways.
The team was instructed to leave any unwanted items and garbage in New Jersey. It's end up there anyways.
Oh yeah – take Snookie with you!!!!