Are These The Faces Of A New Brooklyn Dynasty?

Maybe, but the Knicks and James Dolan may have the last laugh.

- Will Leitch

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 ownership put up a billboard across the street from Madison Square Garden. The billboard featured, narcissistically, two of the owners themselves—brash Russian billionaire (and future candidate for president of Russia) Mikhail Prokhorov and future inspiration 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 billboard 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, seeking headlines rather than smart investments, signing aging veterans to big dollars rather than young cost-controlled talent. They acted like the Knicks, and they failed like the Knicks.

But they learned their lesson, unlike the Knicks. They pared down their payroll by acquiring expensive expiring contracts, endured several terrible seasons, concentrated on building a cohesive structure, got their management team in gear and all on the same page, and assembled an appealing team of low-cost castoffs who—last year, at least—significantly outperformed expectations. And now they have their reward. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, a dream combo of free agents, are coming to Brooklyn, one generational talent and one year-in-year-out all-star joining a franchise whose biggest previous stars were an over-the-hill Kevin Garnett, a slouching Deron Williams, and a yet-to-be-optimized Brook Lopez. This is a major event for the Brooklyn Nets—