Dress Rehearsal: Brooklyn Nets’ exhibiton opener at Barclays Center a smashing success
As far as dress rehearsals go, this one had all the makings of a long-running hit on the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
A full-throated crowd of 14,219 Brooklynites earned the right to say they saw the Nets play their first-ever game in Brooklyn, albeit an exhibition contest against the Washington Wizards, on Monday night.
From the opening tip, which unofficially ended our borough’s 55-year drought without a pro sports franchise, to the final buzzer of an impressive 98-88 victory, Nets fans, decked out in the franchise’s brand new black-and-white color scheme, rocked the Barclays Center from points high and low in the state-of-the-art arena, which will host its first-ever regular-season affair come Nov. 1 against the East River rival Knicks.