In 2012, when the then-New Jersey Nets decided to cross the Hudson River and move to their new home in Brooklyn, they didn’t know they would be taking something else with them.
Ever since the Nets moved into their new digs at the Barclays Center they have been cursed. While the curse might have been cast by a witch on the Jersey Turnpike while the Nets team buses were passing through the Lincoln Tunnel, in actuality it has been years of mismanagement and poor short-sighted moves that are to blame.
The Nets’ move to Brooklyn was orchestrated by Bruce Ratner, who was widely regarded as one of the worst owners in all of professional sports.
When Ratner bought the team in 2004, he was not hiding the fact that he wanted to move the team to Brooklyn. He was a real estate investor who was overseeing one of the largest developments in New York, transforming the Atlantic train yards into the Barclays Center and residential highrises.
Ratner, at the end of his five-year tenure as Nets owner, was taking on a lot of debt and needed to sell the team off to salvage his investments. Ratner would sell to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who would lead them on their move to Brooklyn.
The Nets were looking to get back to the winning times that evaded them since 2003 after their back-to-back Finals appearances, and Prokhorov promised that he would bring a championship to fans in five years.
In 2012, the Nets were fresh off a 24-win season in their last season calling New Jersey home. The team would travel across the river with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez as the faces of the franchise at the time.
The man who was tasked with leading the charge for the Nets to become champions was general manager Billy King, who acted in desperation when he was making moves for the Nets.
King would make very shortsighted moves in order to fulfill Prokhorov’s quest for championships. One of these moves would end up going down as one of the worst in NBA history and would contribute to one of the first times the Nets curse would rear its ugly head.
King made a win-now move when he decided to trade for the Boston Celtics aging superstars Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry.
The Celtics got a king’s ransom with five players, but the most important part was the picks they received: three of the Nets’ future first-round picks and a future pick swap.
The Nets, with their aging squad of superstars, would only reach the playoffs once as a full squad, winning one series before losing to the Miami Heat. The Nets were left with nothing after mortgaging their future.
The Celtics, on the other hand, would end up turning those picks into Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who would go on to win a championship with Boston in 2024.
The Nets, after this massive fumble of a trade, would attempt to rebuild slowly, building roots through the draft with trades and free agents. King would be fired and the new general manager would be Sean Marks.
Marks would start building what ended up being a very beloved Nets squad, drafting Caris LeVert in 2016 and Jarrett Allen in 2017, helping lay the seeds for the arrival of D’Angelo Russell in a trade with the Golden State Warriors.
The Nets were a ragtag bunch led by Jared Dudley and Russell and a young core of Allen, LaVert and Spencer Dinwiddie. This Nets squad was able to fight for a playoff spot in 2019 and won the hearts of Brooklyn. Fans finally had a team to rally behind.
At this time, Prokhorov in his final move before selling the franchise to Joe Tsai, would sign Kyrie Irving in free agency along with a sign and trade for Kevin Durant. This would be an exciting time for Nets fans, getting the two biggest superstars of the offseason.
The Nets would end up trading Russell, who led this Nets squad, in the deal. But it didn’t matter because Durant was a Brooklyn Net. The Nets weren’t done with trades yet; in 2021, they would allow the curse to overtake them once again.
The Nets didn’t learn from the first time and mortgaged their future once again to acquire James Harden from the Houston Rockets, for four future first-round picks along with five first-round pick swaps.
This squad was rife with injuries, and the Nets’ new big three would only end up playing eight games together over the year they were formed.
The furthest they got was an Eastern Conference semifinals appearance against the Milwaukee Bucks. Durant took what looked like a series-winning three that ended up being a two, due to his toe being on the three-point line, and the Nets would end up losing in overtime.
Fans who might not have believed in the curse before became believers after that series. This squad would slowly disband, with Harden requesting a trade, then Irving causing a lot of issues and getting traded next.
Then, finally, Durant got traded in a massive deal to the Phoenix Suns, where the Nets would get a lot of their picks back. The Nets would also receive Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson. Bridges would play a season for the Nets before being traded to the Knicks for five picks to add to the Nets stockpile.
So, when the dust settles, where are the Nets now in the 2025 season? It’s pointing toward a top-five lottery pick. They do have a fun squad, led by Nic Claxton and joined by Johnson and Russell coming back in a trade, along with Cam Thomas as a very exciting budding All-Star.
Fans are hoping that the Nets are finally done licking their wounds and picking up the pieces after bad deals. But the curse that the Nets have carried with them after crossing the Hudson River always manages to sneak its way down Atlantic Avenue.
