Expect booming business from Brownsville to Bay Ridge in the coming weeks as the Brooklyn Nets vie for the borough’s first major sports championship since the Brooklyn Dodgers won baseball’s World Series in 1955, and Brooklyn Borough President Candidate Robert Cornegy Jr. couldn’t be more ecstatic.
Cornegy, who’s been a Nets fan since they were in New Jersey, watched their game this past Tuesday as a guest bartender across the street at Bleachers, a Black-owned sports bar and grill. Cornegy says the Nets’ success has highlighted the borough of Brooklyn and businesses surrounding it.
“Who would’ve thought that from Bedford-Stuyvesant I could walk to the arena, spend my evening watching a playoff game in Brooklyn from across the street in a Black-owned business,” said Cornegy. “If you would’ve told me this 20 years ago I would’ve said you’re crazy.”
Cornegy became a Nets fan in large part due to Buck Willams, a Nets legend who played in the 1980s. Cornegy is excited about what a Nets championship will mean to Brooklyn and its businesses. He feels it will give Brooklyn a much-needed shot in the arm.
“After we suffered so much in the borough of Brooklyn, after facing all the inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, it would be such a healing prospect. Not only spiritually and mentally but also financially because business comes back,” said Cornegy.
Now that the Knicks have been eliminated from the playoffs, New York’s only hope at a championship this season resides in Brooklyn with the Nets. The Nets haven’t won a championship while in the NBA, but do have two in the now-defunct ABA.
Since they moved to Brooklyn in 2012, they have yet to even make a finals appearance. But this year they have three of the most explosive offensive scorers to ever grace the hardwood in Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving, making Cornegy more than confident in their chances.
“I’m already mapping out the parade route which would obviously be on Flatbush,” said Cornegy. “This is the greatest place in the world to be, now we got the greatest team to go along with it.”
The Nets, led by the aforementioned mega-star trio, are now in the second round of the playoffs, after barely breaking a sweat in polishing off the Boston Celtics in 5 games in the best of seven series.
Up next, their explosive offense will be put to the test against a worthy opponent in the Milwaukee Bucks, who have Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Award winner at their disposal.
The series kicks off this Saturday at the Barclays Center in what’s expected to be a close and exciting series. The Nets do have home court advantage in the series and that could come into play if the series goes to seven games which is a real possibility.
All of Brooklyn will be watching.
