Brooklyn Bounce: The Highs and Lows of Nets Basketball's Historic First Season in the Borough

An in-depth account of the Brooklyn Nets’ inaugural season—and the meaning of professional basketball’s arrival into the urban center of Brooklyn—written by a talented New York Times, GQ, and Slam sportswriter.

When the Brooklyn Nets played their first game at Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn in the fall of 2012, they succeeded in bringing a major professional sports franchise back to Brooklyn for the first time since the Dodgers abandoned the borough in 1957.

Now, Brooklyn Bounce chronicles the Nets’ historic inaugural season in the borough, full of highs and lows—plenty of them entirely unexpected. Jake Appleman takes us inside the locker room and courtside, examining the team’s transition from the New Jersey swamp to gentrified Brooklyn, from an opening night delayed by Hurricane Sandy to an epic seven-game playoff showdown with the Chicago Bulls.

The Nets were the game’s foremost paradox in 2013, a team that managed to be the most improved in the NBA, but also consistently disappointed. What made them interesting wasn’t their style of play or even their unique collection of personalities; it was their constant state of reinvention and their evolving relationship with their new home: as the Barclays crowds would chant it, BROOOOOOK-LYN!