Come on Nets

Everything’s up to date in the borough of churches and trees. In fact, the Brooklyn Cyclones are still playing baseball in Coney Island.

And in the other boroughs, the New York Yankees are playing in the Bronx, the New York Mets in Queens, the New York Knicks in Manhattan, and across the Hudson in New Jersey, the New York Jets and New York Giants are playing NFL ball in East Rutherford.

But the Garden State does have an actual tenant in the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and the WNBA’s Liberty has been shuffled back and forth from Joisey to Nu Yawk, they are never sure of their address.

If any of these professional franchises has been forgotten, well they play in B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N, once one of the most populated non-city areas in the country.

These poor Brooklyn Nets who play NBA ball in the spectacular colorful lit-up Barkley Center right off the main drag of Flatbush Avenue are filled with pressure, one that goes way, way back. That was the year 1955 when the then-Brooklyn Dodgers won the borough’s last world championship in finally getting past the booming, legendary Bronx Bombers.

Any more? Nope, no more. Two years later, the Ebbets Field and Polo Grounds residents packed up and moved to California, left us with no Major League Baseball team until the Mets settled in at the ancient Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan in1962. Five years went by before Shea Stadium in Flushing Queens became the new home of the orange and blue, the orange the colors of the Giants and the blue of the Dodgers.

Sixty seven years have gone by since the World Series flag was hung at the small, but great old fan-favorite Ebbets Field, which now houses the Jackie Robinson Apartments across from Prospect Park.

And for the Brooklyn Nets, they are being dunked. They don’t have the crowds like the Knicks have at the great Meca Madison Square Garden, they have been up and down in the standings, same as they are right now.

The latest news has them at 2-6 after falling Tuesday night to the visiting Chicago Bulls. This followed on the tight win over the visiting Indiana Pacers. No consistency, and now no head coach after Steve Nash was let go on Monday.

Nice guy, Nash, a super point guard from Canada, a Pro Basketball Player Hall of Famer. But this was his first try as a head coach and the nice-guy Nets decided he had to be replaced. Something has got to work and he wasn’t manufacturing it. A new head man will be named in a few weeks, but right now this team has got to start piecing it together.

It has talent with the one-two punch of 6-foot-10 Kevin Durant and 6-2 Kyrie Irving. Joe Harris, the 6-6 outside sharpshooter, is back after ankle surgery sidelined him all of last season, young 6-11 post Nic Claxton has gotten tougher inside and is a sure thing from the foul line, the 6-5 forward Royce O’Neale was claimed from the Utah Jazz, 6-3 shooter Cam Thomas probably needs to play more, and 6-foot veteran shooting guard Patty Mills has got to get his marksmanship back.

Ben Simmons, the 6-11 guard-forward in the trade with the Philadelphia 76ers for James Harden, has done some and also no some as he continues to adjust, then there’s 6-10 post Andres Drummond who has been on the injury list, and 6-11 post-forward, age 36, Lamarcus Aldridge healthy enough sometimes and also injured enough at other times.

Point guard Seth Curry, brother of Stephan of the Golden State Warriors, is still sidelined, and others to be mentioned are both young, 6-4 guard David Duke, Jr., and 6-9 post Dayron Sharpe. Oh. and 6-9. age 34 Blake Griffin has signed on with the Portland Trailblazers.

So where does that leave us? Well, defense has got pick it up man-to-man or zone, offense has got to join Durant and Irving in scoring. In these recent early games, the two have totaled 68 points, 63 points, and Durant has a high of 39 and Irving 36. Help? Sure do need it.

Yes, Claxton has really improved, Harris is still trying to hit the 3s last before, Thomas, only 21 and led LSU in scoring as a sophomore, but needs to play more, Mills to shoot more, O’Neale, now 29, to maintain his defensive skills, if Aldridge took the floor again, he’d be a big addition, and Simmons has the talent, the versatility, but sometimes hides it, leaves it behind in the locker room. A good ballplayer like 6-8 shooting guard Kessler Edwards should be off the injury list soon and that should help.

Trades? Well, right now they have to go with what they have until maybe a new head coach arrives. Something good has got to start happening. The ball has got to get downcourt more often, ignite the fast break, pass the ball better, bang the boards inside, penetrate, defend with more aggression.

Heck, 67 years is a long time to be without a championship. Almost seven decades. I was born and raised in good old Brooklyn. It deserves better, which means finally hoisting a championship banner that would probably include a parade starting at the Brooklyn Bridge and dribbling past the Barklay Center and through Prospect Park, maybe even continuing to Coney Island and past the ageless Cyclone, whatever, how about just taking care of business Nets.

Churches, trees, nice people, the Belt Parkway, the Staten Island ferry, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Paramount Theater, Sheepshead Bay, Ocean Parkway, Utica Avenue, Church Avenue, Flatlands Avenue, can’t they also fit in a world championship as time goes by?