Tuesday 11 September 2012

The Brooklyn Nets reveal their new, herringbone-patterned home court (PHOTOS)

There've been multiple pictures dropped on Instagram of late purporting to show the brand spankin' new basketball court at the Brooklyn Nets' brand spankin' new digs at the Barclays Center, a playing surface that will host the hometown squad for at least 41 contests (and, Nets fans hope, many more) during the upcoming season. The team removed all doubt as to what the court looks like on Tuesday, releasing a number of shots through its official website (and more through the New York Post) that ought to whet fans' appetite for the Nets' much-hyped opening night matchup with their soon-to-be crosstown rivals, the New York Knicks.

Nets.com's Ben Couch has the details on the new court, which boasts a herringbone pattern that Nets CEO Brett Yormark trumpets as the team's attempt to develop a signature look rivaling the surfaces at some of the league's most recognizable arenas:

Designed by the Brooklyn Nets' creative team and produced at Connor Sports Flooring Manufacturing Mill in Amasa, Mich., the court will officially debut November 1, when the Nets open the season against the Knicks. It consists of 240 panels each measuring 4-feet wide, 7-feet long and 185 pounds; they took two weeks to construct, utilizing specialized milled lumber. The court takes four hours to assemble. [...]

"The vision all along was to have something that was truly identifiable and unique and when people turned on their TVs at home, know they were in Brooklyn," Yormark said. "When you turn on the TV and you turn on a Celtics game and you look at that court, it's a parquet that has become very recognizable. We want this to be the same — it's our version of the parquet. I think it truly delivered against all of our expectations."

On one level, that's true; the mere fact of having a patterned home court should set the Nets apart, much as the fabled parquet of the Boston Garden (replicated in the TD Garden, the Boston Celtics' home since 1995) lent (and lends) a distinctive look and feel to every Boston home game. On another, the court's look only goes from "distinctive" to "cool and iconic" when you win a bunch of games and titles on that court over a long period of time. Otherwise, you just wind up with a different deck that's associated with little more than losing, and could even wind up screwing with those fancy motion-tracking cameras you installed to try to help give your team an advanced analytical boost.

As in most things, marching to our own beat tends to draw admiration only if you wind up at your destination faster; as with all things Nets, the time, attention, money and interest invested won't make a lick of difference if they don't win a bunch. Still, it's pretty.

Hit the jump for more photos of the brand new court at Barclays Center.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised owner Mikhail Prokhorov didn't spring for a massive center-hung videoboard that would make the Houston Rockets' new Toyota Center display look like the screen you'd find on a Game Gear. Then again, if you buy every bell and whistle right out of the gate, you've got no upgrades to make down the line. I'm sure Barclays will be home to a Jerry World-style monstertron soon enough.

The slightly darker finish of the herringbone-patterned court will probably make those Jay-Z-designed and heretofore-unrevealed (at least, not officially revealed) home white uniforms pop even more on camera.

The Nets are promoting their Twitter account on the sideline, aiming to drive traffic to a page that will reportedly offer team news, exclusive photos, offers and giveaways, and, if we're lucky, regular arguments with bored NBA writers that result in everyone calling everyone haters and trolls until, eventually, everyone just agrees that nobody is as good as Michael Jordan, which is basically the endpoint of every Basketball Twitter argument. Seems like a pretty good strat. (Here's hoping that every time Nets coach Avery Johnson sets foot on the @BrooklynNets logo, the Nets' game operations crew will play a small, adorable bird-chirp sound effect.)

Normally, to get this close to the court, you'd have to needlessly and ridiculously flop like your name was Reggie Evans.

This is where Brook Lopez and Tyson Chandler will jump for the tip on Nov. 1, 2012, unless Tyson uses his giant, ridiculous boots to step on Brook's peanut-brittle feet before the game. Then, anything could happen, really.

Asked for his opinion on the herringbone pattern and overall look of the Barclays Center court, Nets forward Kris Humphries said, "I think about its style as, like, London meets Italy — edgy but, you know, classic at the same time." Oh, no, wait, he was talking about himself there, because of course he was.



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