Brooklyn-born Marv Albert was an office boy for the Dodgers (even before he was ballboy for the Knicks), then called games for both the Knicks and Nets in his Hall of Fame career. He will call Thursday's game ... if there is a game... for TNT. He writes in the New York Times Tuesday that he "can hardly wait," and notes....

Around the city, people keep asking me about the Nets — at a rate that I never thought possible. Fanatics from New Jersey used to be the only people who wanted to chat me up about the Nets. Sometimes, you hardly knew they had taken the court at Izod Center. Far more often, people wanted to talk to me about the Knicks — and kept asking after I left the Knicks’ TV booth to call Nets games.

The Nets are now relevant, Albert says, suggesting they can cut into the Knicks fanbase. "There was no pro alternative in New York to rooting for the Knicks. Now, the Nets can challenge them as they never did from Long Island, Piscataway, the swamps of New Jersey or Newark."

• Back Home in Brooklyn, Marv Albert Welcomes a New Resident - Marv Albert - New York Times