Brooklyn Bounce: The Rise of the Brooklyn Nets

by Jake Appleman

Overview

“A breezy, cautionary tale for modern sports fans” (Booklist) of the Brooklyn Nets’ inaugural season, which brought back pro sports to the borough of Brooklyn—now updated to include the 2013-2014 season.

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

Brooklyn Bounce chronicles the Nets’ historic inaugural season in the borough, full of highs and lows—plenty of them entirely unexpected. Sports journalist 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! Here, “Appleman’s wit, enthusiasm for his subject, and familiarity with the players lifts Brooklyn Bounce above most season chronicles” (The Boston Globe).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476726762
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	02/03/2015
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jake Appleman has covered the NBA for eight seasons for Slam Magazine, GQ, Vibe, NBCSports.com, NBA.com, and most recently The New York Times. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Pinnacle Is Prologue 1

1 There's No Place Like Away 11

2 Two Point Guards 23

3 White Team/Black Team 45

4 Rappers, Russians, Hurricanes 63

5 Brooklyn, Home and Away 79

6 The Battle of the Boroughs 101

7 From Christmas Coal to Carlesimo 125

8 Stars-Reluctant and Otherwise 149

9 New Stats, New Energy 165

10 No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn 181

11 Coming Attractions 197

12 Respiration 205

Epilogue: New Point Guards 225

Acknowledgments 249

Editorial Reviews

Appleman’s wit, enthusiasm for his subject, and familiarity with the players lifts Brooklyn Bounce above most season chronicles."

Boston Globe

"An excellent book on [the] Nets first season in Brooklyn. Very well done."

Adrian Wojnarowski

"Appleman’s account is a breezy, cautionary tale for modern sports fans in an era in which money trumps all, and owners who know nothing about the NBA meddle destructively."

Booklist

Brooklyn Bounce is full of insights on the small dramas…. I’m a lifelong Lakers nut and found myself interested in the Nets for the first time in my life.

"Man Cave" CBS Local

"Must-read material."

Complex Sports

"A fun read."

Good Times Magazine

"Appleman’s account is a breezy, cautionary tale for modern sports fans in an era in which money trumps all, and owners who know nothing about the NBA meddle destructively."

Booklist