National Basketball Association

New Jersey Nets end 29-year run at Meadowlands

Published Apr. 13, 2010 4:03 p.m. ET

foxsports

For most of the second half of the New Jersey Nets' final game at the Meadowlands, the team's current and most recent owners sat next to each other and shared some thoughts and laughs.

With the Nets' 29-year run at the Izod Center coming to an end with a 105-95 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, Bruce Ratner and Lewis Katz looked at the photographers on the baseline and posed for a couple of pictures.

``We've been in this sport 12 years with this team,'' Ratner said after Monday night's game. ``We stayed friends and enjoyed the game and discussed who's better and who's worse. He's better in basketball, I'll tell you that.''

As owners, neither got to enjoy the thrill of seeing the Nets win an NBA championship, although Katz had two of his teams reach the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, respectively.

The Nets will move to Newark for the next two seasons to play in the Prudential Center. They plan to move to Brooklyn, N.Y., for the 2012 season, provided the proposed Barclays Center is open.

By that time, Ratner will not be the majority owner.

Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov agreed in December to buy 80 percent of the franchise and 45 percent of the planned arena from Ratner's Forest City Ratner Cos.

His ownership application has been vetted by the league but its board of governors won't vote on it until the state of New York takes full possession of land at the arena site that was acquired under eminent domain.

Ratner said it was somewhat sad to see the final game at the Izod Center.

``In my six years of ownership, we went to the playoffs three years and three years we didn't,'' he said. ``I wish we could have had a better season. I am kind of nostalgic. I still love the team. What was good was the last third of the season. We played very hard. I think the team was better than its record and I am so glad to be associated with it.''

After trading Vince Carter to Orlando in the offseason to create some salary cap space for the upcoming offseason, Ratner knew the Nets would struggle this season. However, he did not expect the team to have 12 wins heading into the season finale at Miami on Wednesday.

``We wanted to improve and I think we've put ourselves in a great spot,'' Ratner said.

The Nets will be at least $23 million under the salary cap heading into an offseason in which LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire and Rudy Gay might be available.

The Nets, who have a group of good young core players in Brook Lopez, Devin Harris, Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee and Yi Jianlian, also will pick no worse than fourth in the draft - they have a 25 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick overall.

For Katz, the end was somewhat ironic. He and fellow owner Ray Chambers wanted to build an arena in Newark and move the team there. They even signed a joint venture with the New York Yankees to accomplish that and purchased the New Jersey Devils of the NHL.

The move never panned out and YankeeNets eventually sold the Devils to minority owner Jeff Vanderbeek, who succeeded in building an arena in Newark and moving the team there.

``It's bittersweet,'' Katz said of the final game at Izod. ``It was a wonderful, wonderful time for all of us who spent a lot of our lives down here. On the other hand, maybe Newark will spur somebody else who will want to put a team there.

``It was our dream,'' he added. ``We just couldn't get a governor to support us to build the arena. But you got a hockey arena. It should have a basketball team. Maybe if they do real well that could be the beginning of someone else seeing how it could work. The end result, this team (the Nets) will come back when it gets to New York.''

Some workers at the Izod Center felt there was a chance the facility might play host to the Knicks and Rangers for a year if Madison Square Garden underwent renovations in the near future.

``There is nothing to that,'' Dennis Robinson, the chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. He said the arena might be the site of some college basketball games.

``I think what we have been known for and what we do best is being a family and concert show facility,'' Robinson said. ``We have been one of the best in that business and we will look to grow that in the future.''