8 new york | july 8–21, 2019
inside: Noma’s latest reinvention / A subculture takes flight at JFK / Introducing: Emily Adams BodeGames:
Will Leitch
Are These the Faces of
a New Brooklyn Dynasty?
Maybe, but the Knicks
and James Dolan
may have the last laugh. PHOTOGRAPH: DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
in 2010, a couple years before the Brooklyn Nets first
came into existence—with a shiny new building, a business plan
built mostly around real estate, and Bruce Ratner (remember
him?) implanted as Public Enemy No. 1—the new Nets owner-
ship put up a billboard across the street from Madison Square
Garden. The billboard featured, narcissistically, two of the own-
ers themselves—brash Russian billionaire (and future candidate
for president of Russia) Mikhail Prokhorov and future inspira-
tion for Lemonade Jay-Z—with the slogan blueprint for
success. The message was clear, in typical swaggering New York
City terms: The Knicks and the Garden have had their run, but
the Nets and Barclays are the future. Seven years after that bill-
board went up, and five years after Barclays Center did, the Nets
had the worst team in the NBA, Prokhorov was selling much of
his share, and Jay-Z was cheering on the Warriors in the NBA
Finals. Their mistake was acting like the Knicks: talking big,Kyrie Irving, left, and Kevin Durant in 2016.