Ironworkers have begun erecting steel for the third level at Barclays Center, and the arena is starting to look very real.  Not real enough, thinks Jason Kidd who attended more than one event at the Brooklyn site and whose face adorned the original but now abandoned architects' renderings seven years ago.

"Unless it's built, you can't believe it," said the point guard who led the Nets to two NBA Finals before Bruce Ratner bought the team with the idea of moving it to Brooklyn. Still, Kidd was generally upbeat about the team's chances of getting out of the hole, literally and figuratively, they've been in.

"I think you have to be patient," he said. "You have a free agent class coming up, they have a new owner and a new coach, so I think you have to be patient and, at the same time, you have to have a little luck, too. Hopefully, those things will turn for the better for the Nets."

• Kidd says free agents need to see Brooklyn arena before signing - Tom Canavan - AP
• Kidd: New arena not a lure yet - Fred Kerber - New York Post
• Kidd: Melo had reason to doubt Brooklyn - Ken Berger - CBS Sports
  
• Last word on dead Melo-Nets trade comes from ex-Net Kidd - Chris Sheridan - ESPN New York
• Kidd to Melo: Stay west, young man - Eddie Sefko - Dallas Morning News