Brooklyn Nets

Northjersey.com reports the Nets New Jersey Nets ' proposed moved to Brooklyn could hit another setback this week.

The Web site says, "On the eve of several critical votes next week on the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, seven New York city and state elected officials have asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to postpone any decision indefinitely."

Failure to move to Brooklyn would sink any remote chance the team has to attract LeBron James if he becomes a free agent after the 2010 season.

The Nets can't catch a break, they've been abandoned by their architect, downsized the proposed arena, they still have civic groups protesting, a bad economy and now an indefinite postponement of approvals.

Their absolute best case scenario is a 2011-12 season starting in Brooklyn and even that looks doubtful if the project was given the green light next week. At this point, I'd turn my recruitment efforts towards LeBron James Jr. if I were them.

It's now looking more and more likely that the Nets will end up in Brooklyn after all, but the most important thing to me about the move is that it won't happen until 2011 at the earliest.

Last week an Appellate Court ruled that the proper studies and decisions were made by the Empire State Development Corp. when they approved the Atlantic Yards project. The activist group that brought the lawsuit has vowed to appeal. In simple terms, Bruce Ratner and the state get approvals for development of the 22 acre site; Brooklynites who don't want their land taken and further don't want big developments to take its place get angry and bring a lawsuit; Judge says the area where they're building is a mess, this is good for the community and Ratner can develop the heck out of it. The government can take your land people, it happens all the time, they just need to show that its for the overall public good.

Ratner will be able to develop, however his grandiose plans are rumored to be scaled down tremendously due to financing being hard to come by (he's already taken on a new partner for some of it) combined with the cost of building going up.

So what does this all mean for LeBron James in 2010? It means that if he wants to join his boy Jay Z, he'll have to spend a year at that hell hole in the swamp before moving to a new arena in 2011. Lets also not forget that developments, especially in this economy, take a lot of time. I think the 2011 estimate is generous for a project that's been continuously delayed.

Bottom line - no friendship with minority owner Jay Z is convincing LeBron to spend a year in basketball Siberia when the World's Most Famous Arena is knocking, actually more like pounding, on his door. This is still a 2 horse race between the The Forest City and New York, New York.