The BrooklyKnight mascot superhero introduced: a cartoon defender of "Brooklyn" when the borough needs real ones

Photo via http://thescore.tumblr.com/

I'll have more later on the Brooklyn Nets debut last night, but first, a few words about The Brooklyn Knight or, as he's apparently known, The BrooklyKnight, the Nets' new mascot. He's apparently already making people miss the comparatively real predecessor, Sly Fox.

"I think we can all agree that everything was a success tonight with the notable exception of the mascot," tweeted Daily News beat writer Stefan Bondy. "For what it's worth: it's really, really, really nice that the Nets' major weakness right now is that their mascot sucks," commented Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game.

"The Brooklyn Knight looks like a building Bruce Ratner would use eminent domain on," he added, prompting a response: "he looks like a cheap, cheap WWE character."

He does, and it was particularly notable that a cartoon superhero was claimed for Brooklyn at a time when the borough very much needs mundane, shoulder-to-the wheel help (and money).

Announcer David Diamante, with a background announcing boxing matches and DJing at strip clubs, read the introduction--clearly written before Hurricane Sandy--with no recognition of potential ironies.



"And now, Nets fans, look to the sky," Diamante declared portentously. "It's time, descending from the rafters, after so long, the wait is finally over. The power within this hallowed ground can be contained no longer. Tonight, at long last, to this Brooklyn, your Brooklyn, to this arena, your arena, to this team, your team, your superhero is here. Born from the beating heart of your Brooklyn. Forged from the steel and stone as your battleground, he's your hunger for a team to call your own. He's your passion given form. Here, to defend Brooklyn, he's the BrooklyKnight."

I don't think any of that is "ours" except in the sense of geography.

(And yes, there's a porn star known as "Brooklyn Night." Her credits include some rather creatively named films.)

What sports can do

Daily News columnist Mike Lupica wrote:

We always want to make the games part of the relief effort, as if they’re being played for the victims. They’re not. They never have been and never will be. Of course there have been bad times before this when we all wanted to buy into the romantic conceit that our teams and our athletes can somehow make us feel that we’re all in something together. We’re not. Even at their best, they’re just games.
...The Knicks didn’t win one for New York on Friday night because they made a lot of 3’s and beat the Heat in a game that the Heat seemed completely disinterested in playing, and not just Dwyane Wade. The Giants won’t be winning one for the Jersey Shore today and the Nets aren’t winning one for Staten Island.
...You want to remember a magnificent relief effort in New York City, remember the one we saw at Shea Stadium in September of 2001, when the Mets and their manager Bobby Valentine turned the place into an emergency clearing house for goods and volunteers and even offered first responders from out of town a place to rest for a while.

The promotion

An announcement, via comicbook.com:

“Brooklyn now has a new Super Hero to call its own,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. “BrooklyKnight is a superior combination of strength, power, and confidence — sounds just like Brooklyn to me.”
“Marvel Entertainment has outdone itself with its newest Super Hero creation for the Brooklyn Nets,” Brooklyn Nets Chairman Christophe Charlier said. “We are honored to have collaborated with the company of the world’s mightiest Super Heroes.”
“As a Brooklynite and a hardcore hoops fan, for me to get the opportunity to help create a Super Hero for my home borough’s new team was a dream come true,” said Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief, Marvel Entertainment. “Working with the Nets staff, we have created a team Super Hero that is unlike anything the NBA has ever seen; a timeless character who can stand shoulder to shoulder with icons like Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and Thor. Let’s go, Nets!”
A comic book featuring the character–written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Mike Deodato–was given away at the game. The cover can be seen above and sample pages below. Fans attending the game November 11 against the Orlando Magic will receive a trading card featuring the character from Marvel Custom Solutions.
“Forged from the blood, sweat and tears of Brooklyn itself — always ready to defend his home and defeat any challenger — all hail the BrooklyKnight!” exclaimed Bill Rosemann, Editor, Marvel Custom Solutions. “When Nets fans meet their guardian, they will immediately know that the House of Ideas has once again unleashed a hero who will soon be known all over the world for his nobility, grit, and strength. Brooklyn, your champion is here!”

OK, the consensus becomes that keeping the Nets-Knicks game would've been a bad idea. But the Nets and the NBA get off mostly unscathed, as does Bloomberg.

The belated backlash to the unwise decision to continue with the Nets-Knicks opener scheduled for tonight--until Mayor Mike Bloomberg yesterday stopped it--continues.

Still, no one has challenged the unfounded explanation, as accepted by the New York Times, by Brooklyn Nets CEO Brett Yormark and NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver that they didn't know how bad the subways were when they made the decision to reaffirm the plan.

In fact, the Times devotes far more resources to an article about Knicks fans becoming Nets fans.

Nor has anyone tried to figure out how and why Mayor Mike Bloomberg--whose office, according to Yormark, coordinated with the decision to keep the game--changed his mind. (I speculate that the cops might have protested.) Michael D.D. White, in his Noticing New York blog, captures the mayor's unseemly, boosterish tone:

In the course of two back-to-back news conferences on the extraordinary disaster accompanying hurricane he twice embarrassed himself, each time taking time out from the business of the hurricane relief efforts and reports on deaths to swing into promotion for the so-called “Barclays” basketball arena (which he has started calling a “stadium”- does he think a full scale stadium could have been squeezed into the neighborhood?).

Yormark sheepish

Appearing for the second straight day on the WFAN show Boomer & Carton, Yormark this morning was sheepish: "Y'know, we had our conversation yesterday... as I said... it's been a collaborative effort, with the league, the mayor's office, and obviously our management. And yesterday morning, and more towards midday, the mayor had called us, and after further assessment on obviously the prolific damage done to the city, he felt it was most appropriate to pause for a couple of days until Saturday. So that's what we all agreed to. Listen, we've got to do what's best for the community; if that in fact is what's best, then we went along with it."

That doesn't hold water: the NBA's explanation was that they didn't realize how long it would take for mass transit to recover--but that warning was issued nine hours before the game was reaffirmed.

Craig Carton (who'd earlier tweeted about "media sheep") commented, "This was not a decision that you guys were allowed to make unilaterally... But it was interesting to me that, y'know yesterday, everybody on the conference call, you said to us, you, everyone was 100% Yes, we're playing the game. And the mayor was the one who picked up the phone and said, Y'know what, we're not playing the game, and here's why. When he makes that phone call, who's involved?"

"He called the league first, and the league got me involved," Yormark responded. "And obviously , if that was the wishes of the mayor's office, then we went along with it." (Note that Yormark had said yesterday that the mayor's office was part of the group that agreed that the game should go on.)

"Obviously you heard him the day before, he was interested in making sure this game went on and in fact said he would attend it," Yormark continued. "But listen, we all reserve the right to make changes, and those changes are hopefully based on further evaluation, and doing what's right. And the mayor changed his position, and we did as well." (But there was no new evaluation to be done; it looks like the mayor was either ignored by the NBA, or swayed by the arguments for the "historic" home opener.)

"We'll open up on Saturday night, it'll be as dramatic as it would've been Thursday," Yormark claimed, settling back into "carnival barker" mode (to quote Ian O'Connor). "We're going to open up two hours earlier... It seems like slowly rail's coming back on line. Maybe it's going to be better because more fans are going to be able to come out."

Carton said later, "It doesn't matter to me how you get to the right answer, as long as you get there. I told you was offended by the fact that there was going to be a game when we all spoke yesterday... And I'm glad you guys got to it: whether it was the mayor, or Marty Markowitz, or you guys, y'know, whatever Boomer and I had to do with it by bringing it up.... I'm glad that you guys--don't be offended by this--came to your senses and agreed that today was not the right day to open up that building."

"Craig, I agree with you," Yormark replied. "Y'know what, no one's perfect. I think, after just further assessment and further evaluation, we decided it was the right thing to do. And I appreciate your candor yesterday."

"Plus, there's another good aspect of it as well," Carton riposted. "You're not going to lose your home opener." Yormark invited him to join him at the rescheduled game.

Bloomberg on video

The video below mashes up Bloomberg's statement on two days ago with his statement yesterday:



A couple of columnists

Columnist Tara Sullivan of The (Bergen) Record wrote:

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg did the right thing when he convinced the NBA to postpone tonight’s scheduled season opener between the Nets and Knicks, correctly realizing how frivolous the image of a half-empty Barclays Center would appear in the midst of the sad, haunting pictures of damage. Now it’s time for him to do the same with Sunday’s New York City Marathon. After telling fans, “I’m sorry about the game,” the mayor underscored his own point by adding, “The police have other things to do.”
...So yes, Bloomberg was right in changing the minds of an NBA brain trust that, for days, continued to insist the Knicks-Nets opener would go on as scheduled. Their desire came as no surprise, given the strong national TV ratings that would have been drawn with two regional powers going at it for the first time since the long-standing, stepchild Nets moved right into big brother’s backyard.

Wrote Daily News columnist Mitch Lawrence:

[NBA Commissioner David] Stern doesn’t normally take orders. But when Mayor Bloomberg called Wednesday to say he thought that the league should postpone Brooklyn’s big night and the season-opener between the Nets and Knicks, the commissioner did the right thinf.
The NBA didn’t object. Everyone knows it had to be done.
As of Wednesday morning, it bordered on incredible that the NBA was still willing to give the Nets what they had lusted for long before the schedule came out. It’s as if Stern was sitting out in Omaha, oblivious to what Sandy had done right below his nose.
...When it comes to promoting their new digs, Bruce Ratner and everyone else associated with the Nets have trumpeted the same sensible advice from the get-go: Don’t drive. Take the subway. After what Sandy did, it’s become, what subway? Thankfully, no one is going to have to figure out a way to get to a place no one wants to take his car to.

Not quite. Saturday's game will be a challenge. But it least it won't be a work day, with commuters, and more of the transit system should be back.

No one's nearly as tough as ESPN's Ian O'Connor, who called the decision to keep the game heartless, clueless, lacking in any redeeming social value, and didn't let Yormark and Silver off the hook.

Mike Vaccaro wrote in the New York Post:

The important thing is, everyone got it right, postponing the Knicks-Nets game in Brooklyn tonight and preventing what would have been an epic case of misplaced judgment. It isn’t necessary to over-praise Mayor Bloomberg for essentially forcing the NBA to do the right thing, same as it isn’t imperative to fillet the short-sighted decision makers who were originally going to allow an event to go on in a building celebrated for its devotion to public transportation even as saltwater continues to eat away at subway tracks in stricken stations and tunnels.
Here is what matters: They got it right.
We’ll know when the time is right to resume...

Times sports columnist Lynn Zinser wrote:

O.K., let’s see if we have this straight: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wisely slaps down the N.B.A.'s initial ridiculous idea to play the Nets-Knicks opener as scheduled Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn because of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, then pauses about two secondsbefore declaring the New York City Marathon must go on.

...The mayor’s news conferences often seem to be conveying several different ideas at once, in several languages, including one resembling Spanish, but this time he is apparently talking from two different planets. The wise, caretaking mayor from Planet Earth decides the N.B.A. must take a back seat to the city’s overall welfare on Thursday while the smooth-talking mayor from Planet Money Trumps All decides that whatever cash spills from the pockets of out-of-town runners, however many of them can even manage to get to the city, is worth draining the city of critical resources for a race on Sunday.

As noted, he really wasn't so wise about the NBA game.
The beat reporters

The story has been mostly left to the sports reporters, whose main sources (duh) are the Nets and the NBA.

Daily News beat reporter Stefan Bondy, who's often unskeptical of Yormark, did recognize an irony:

On Wednesday morning – hours before Bloomberg announced the postponement – Nets CEO Brett Yormark went on WFAN to laud the decision to play the game, urging New Yorkers to use it as a source of inspiration. He also said e-mails from season ticket holders indicated fans "overwhelmingly" wanted to the game played Thursday.
“This can be in many respects rallying cry for New York,” Yormark told the radio station. “Obviously its devastation what went on here. It’s going to be a long recovery, but we do need to forward.”

The New York Post reported simply:

The NBA initially had announced Tuesday night that the game would proceed as scheduled. But Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference yesterday he had pushed the league to postpone the game because of the impact of the storm on the city, and in particular to the mass transit system.

New York magazine's Joe DeLessio wrote:

Frankly, we couldn't believe the NBA had intended to go ahead with the game. Fans have been told for months that they should take public transportation to the arena, and that they shouldn't even think about driving. Barclays Center has been playing up all the subway lines that service the arena, but as of last night, all lines were shut down, and only partial service could be restored tomorrow. Suddenly, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz was encouraging fans, if the game was on, to take buses and ... carpool. It would have been a total shitshow — unless everyone just stayed home, which isn't exactly ideal either.

Then again, his colleague Will Leitch had written a day earlier:

Mayor Bloomberg had put his support behind playing, but with no trains — and a flooded subway entrance — the much-anticipated game was in serious doubt. But no longer! Tipoff is at 7 p.m. on Thursday night.
This might turn into one of those "can't keep New York down!" nights, and hey: The game's cheaper to go to now too.

The Wall Street Journal's Scott Cacciola reported, in So Much for the Grand Opening:

The move came at the request of mayor Michael Bloomberg, who urged NBA officials to postpone the game because of continuing isrues with mass transit in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. Tickets for the game had been selling for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on the secondary market. Now, the Nets will make history Saturday by playing their first official game in Brooklyn against the decidedly less sexy Toronto Raptors.

Newsday's Roderick Boone reported, in Knicks-Nets season opener at Barclays Center postponed:

It's a turnaround from Tuesday, when Bloomberg said he hoped the game would go on as planned despite the lack of mass transit to the area.
"At my recommendation, the NBA has canceled tomorrow night's Nets-Knicks game," Bloomberg said. "I'm sorry about the game. There is a not a lot of mass transit and our police have better things to do."

Walking it back: Nets/NBA claim, unfoundedly, they confirmed Nets debut because they didn't think mass transit would be so hampered

There's some serious revisionism going on in a New York Times article posted tonight headlined Nets’ Opener Against the Knicks in Brooklyn Is Postponed.

No one--not the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA, nor Mayor Mike Bloomberg--apparently will grapple with the fact that the Nets and the NBA, apparently with the cooperation of City Hall, confirmed that the Nets home opener was on even though they knew the subways would not be restored by the time of the game.

The article states:

About 19 hours after saying the Nets would make their regular-season debut Thursday night at Barclays Center against the Knicks, the N.B.A. on Wednesday accepted Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s recommendation that the game be postponed because of Hurricane Sandy’s lingering effects on the public transportation system.
...The league’s initial optimism — expressed Tuesday in a tweet that said, “Knicks-Nets game will be played as scheduled this Thursday at 7 p.m. — followed hopeful remarks by Bloomberg earlier that day when he said he hoped that the game would be played and that he expected to attend.

Was it optimism?

I wouldn't call it merely "initial optimism" or that it was limited to the NBA, which sent out a tweet at about 8 pm, cited by Times reporter Howard Beck: "As tweeted by NBAPR, Nets-Knicks game for Thursday is a go, with or without subways."

Brett Yormark, CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, at about the same time tweeted that television network TNT "makes it official."

This morning, Yormark told WFAN that it was a joint decision: "We worked very closely with the NBA and the Mayor's office... At the end of the day, for lots of different reasons, we felt we needed to move forward.... This isn't a decision the NBA, or the Nets, made in a silo."

Walking it back

The Times seems to be letting Yormark and the NBA walk that back. The article states:

Adam Silver, the N.B.A.’s deputy commissioner, said in a telephone interview that the Twitter message was sent out because “at that moment, the game was on. Games are on until they’re not.” He added: “At that moment, so many fans, arena workers and telecasters were waiting on the decision. And at that point, none of us thought there’d be so little mass transportation this far into the week.”
But expectations that the game would proceed were eventually overwhelmed by the city’s assessment of the subway and rail obstacles created by the hurricane.

Eventually overwhelmed by the city's assessment? C'mon.

More than nine hours earlier, Times staffers were quoting Bloomberg:"Mayor: 4 or 5 days before subways return."

In the new article, the Times reports:

Brett Yormark, the chief executive of the Nets and the arena, said by telephone that the mayor’s “further due diligence and assessment of the damage made it clear that there were higher priorities than hosting the first Nets game in Brooklyn, and we agreed that was the case.”

The Times doesn't mention Yormark's assiduous argument this morning on WFAN that "for lots of different reasons, we felt we needed to move forward. We're working with the MTA... We also feel today this can be in many respects a rallying cry for New York."

So what happened?

Silver told the Times it was the mayor's call. Was the mayor blindsided by the statements by the NBA and Yormark? Maybe, but Yormark claims the mayor's office was in on it.

Was the mayor's office unaware that the subway system wasn't ready? Highly unlikely.

Was the mayor's office acquiescing to a priority expressed by developer Bruce Ratner, a man Bloomberg calls a friend? Perhaps.

So what happened? I don't know. I can only imagine.

A columnist gets it

ESPN columnist Ian O'Connor wrote, in Postponing Nets-Knicks a no-brainer: Staging the Barclays' basketball debut in Sandy's wake would've been a mistake

Yes it was heartless, clueless, lacking in any redeeming social value -- all those things and more. If David Stern thought playing basketball in the immediate wake of Hurricane Sandy would be a great way to kick off his retirement tour as NBA commissioner, he should have retired a long time ago.
Mayor Bloomberg finally called off the madness Wednesday, telling the NBA's elders what they'd likely already heard from their right-minded fans: There was no way they could go ahead with this game. No way they could throw this party in the middle of what will be an enduring human disaster.

And O'Connor doesn't let Yormark and Silver off the hook:

Brett Yormark, whose official title is CEO, Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center and whose unofficial title is carnival barker, was out there rattling on about ticketholder demands to preserve the game. When Bloomberg slam-dunked the opener for good, Yormark released a statement that ended this way:
"Our hearts go out to everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy. We know these are trying times for so many of you and our thoughts are with you."
If your heart was going out to everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy, Brett, why didn't you apply a little common sense and decency to the process and fight for the postponement of the game?
The same question stands for Adam Silver, commissioner-to-be, who confirmed Bloomberg's recommendation to the league -- Why did the league even need that recommendation before acting? -- and sang the standard our-thoughts-are-with-the-victims song.
The Nets and the league wanted their big night in their $1 billion arena. 

The fans speak

On the fan site NetsDaily, commenters were mixed, though one stated:

Really happy we are getting a game all about Brooklyn. Sad it comes at such an unfortunate circumstance.

The league and Yormark are made of the same sludge. They really wanted this game with people dead, houses gone, and subways ruined?

Thank you Bloomberg. You did the right thing, even if it means me missing the first game ever.

Sensation again pounds bass into residences, as arena CEO claims "we are looking into it and we take the concerns very seriously"

It wasn't likely that those behind the second of two nightly Sensation shows at the Barclays Center would turn down the music, and arena operators were not exactly able to retrofit the building.

So for the second straight night, residents even three blocks away heard and felt the bass. One resident posted on Atlantic Yards Watch:

Can hear and feel bass from Sensation show at corner of St. Marks and 5th, and can hear it inside our home with window closed.

Totally unacceptable, annoying, upsetting.

Tweeted Daniel Goldstein:

4 blocks away too. RT @lynfield: #barclays #atlanticyards the noise is coming into the house a block away - wow - just like jayz

David Bivins tweeted:

@MartyMarkowitz Please follow up on incredibly loud noise from Sensations at Barclays Center. It's unreasonable. They're a bad neighbor.

The arena brush-off

Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark, responding to my tweet citing ""Loud, wall shaking noise from event" Again? Explanation?", claimed that "we are looking into it and we take the concerns very seriously." It didn't seem to help.

Nor did the arena's Community Affairs Manager and the Empire State Development's Government and Community Affairs Manager respond to queries I sent yesterday morning.

Yormark also added a personal dig: "As for you, you have no credibility with me." I was just the messenger on this, but I have long documented Yormark's not-so-credible claims.