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Celebrities gravitating toward Brooklyn Nets?

By Net Income
Alex Trautwig

The Knicks' courtside seats have always been a place where celebrities from Woody Allen to Star Jones come to be seen. Now, the question is who shows up in Brooklyn ... other than Jay-Z and Beyonce', of course.

There has been some movement in recent weeks and just this weekend, two celebrities have said they consider themselves fans ... and a third said he's on the edge of making the move.

Patrick Stewart, of Star Trek and X-Men fame (not to mention Shakespeare!) recently moved to Brooklyn's Park Slope. He was at the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund function last month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, mingling with Avery Johnson and Billy King, among others. He is pumped about the Nets.

"I am a sports fan and it now means that I can watch the Nets." Stewart told New York Magazine, "I don’t have to drive, I can walk there. And I have learned I can avoid Flatbush. There are other ways to get to Park Slope, and, of course, the rest of the world will learn that too."

In fact, he's thinking of getting season tickets. "When there’s a stadium a walk away from where you live, why wouldn’t you do that? Better than television."

Not long before he interviewed Deron Williams Friday night, Jimmy Fallon, a long-time Knicks fan, told Ethan Hawke that he's made the switch to the Nets. "I got the outfits, I got the hats, I got the jerseys." Hawke suggested, to audience applause, that Fallon wear Nets gear all next week (when another Nets fan, Jimmy Kimmel, will be broadcasting from BAM to celebrate the return of pro sports to Brooklyn.)

Hawke, a New Yorker and self-described "lifelong Knicks fan", said he's living with the angst of making the choice. He told Fallon:

You're striking me at a very personal place. The whole household is in turmoil. The truth is that my son and I are both...I've been a lifelong Knicks fan, but I was a little upset last year with the whole Jeremy Lin thing. I don't think they should have let him go. I thought he was the most authentic thing to happen in sports. (applause) The guy comes off the bench. He lights it up. The fans get excited and then, who cares, sent him to Houston. I was not impressed.

Now, we got Jay-Z over there, who's bringing it to Brooklyn. The stadium looks great and they got Deron Williams ... So I'm looking at this whole season as an "audition." My son has already gone to Brooklyn. He wants the Nets. We're going to watch.

Thursday should be fun.

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