The New Jersey Nets are no more. At midnight last night, the franchise became formally known as the Brooklyn Nets, with the team's official website and Twitter feed updated to reflect its new identity. The new-look Nets unveiled the logo and color scheme for Brooklyn today, introducing the Jay-Z-designed, black-and-white logo at the Modell's Sporting Goods store across to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Brook Lopez, coach Avery Johnson, and GM Billy King were among the Nets' representatives on hand for the event, as Colin Stephenson of the Star-Ledger writes. Majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov was not in attendance, but a spokeswoman says he "loves" the team's new look, according to Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York.
The Nets' goal is that the new identity will help attract free agents to Brooklyn. King vowed that the team is "not going to build slowly" and NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver suggested that cementing the franchise's new brand will help with player recruitment. The Nets are expected to have plenty of cap room this summer, though a good chunk of that could be used to try to re-sign Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, and Lopez.
For our purposes, Nets-related posts will be tagged with "Brooklyn Nets" from now on. The URL to find Nets rumors remains the same, as do the addresses for our Nets pages on Twitter and Facebook.