Daily News on the Brooklyn Nets: Finally, a home of our own

Inside the Daily News Sunday, there's a special section, a look at how the Nets have finally found a home of their own, Brooklyn, and ended nearly 40 years in a wilderness of leaky, badly maintained and otherwise lousy arenas not of their own making. It's the beginning of a wave of special sections, special stories, even a week of late night TV, to celebrate the Nets arrival in Brooklyn.

The centerpiece of the Daily News section is Stefan Bondy's painful history of what led up to this week: a series of mishaps and missed opportunities that included the sale of Julius Erving's contract, the failure to go after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant, the tragic death of Drazen Petrovic and a host of others, broken only by Jason Kidd's greatness. Has it ended at Atlantic and Flatbush? Bondy writes of where the Nets stand today...

It's not just a sorely needed re-branding, it is a change in culture, a shot of energy. In their final season in New Jersey, the Nets gave press credentials to 12 people for media day, compared to over 100 in Brooklyn. The first game at the Barclays Center this month was the highest-rated and most-watched Nets preseason telecast ever on YES Network.

Then, Jason Sheftell goes inside Barclays Center to find the hidden gems and the thinking behind key decisions, like the all-black seating. Says Matt Rosenberg, who travels the country connecting NBA players to consumer brands...

I see a lot of arenas. This one blows all the others way. It's not even close. The subdued color schemes and streamlined corridors are refreshing for a state-of-the-art arena. Nothing about it seems overdone.

Finally, there's a profile of the man who put it all together: Bruce Ratner. Dennis Hamill, the Brooklyn writer, extols Ratner's role in building a state-of-the-art arena in an American downtown, and all the issues he had to get beyond ... and is still dealing with, like a disaster at the Harlem Globetrotters game earlier this month. Ratner speaks about Brooklyn and what it means to him, a native Clevelander.

Sports stars, entertainers, great journalists, writers, artists, chefs, CEOs, architects, designers, religious and political leaders. It's uncanny. It's an incubator. It's a place where people dream big and make those dreams come true. I came to Brooklyn and had a big dream...And my dream come true in Brooklyn too.

There are also stories about the history of Brooklyn sports and entertainment and a look at the culinary fare offered to fans.