![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/b3f507f4c0d69f7f5f45229e78edd6da.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Presence matters. When you\u2019re present in someone\u2019s lives, you have a chance to be a force for good. By being present, you can provide support, guide someone through troubled waters, and be a source of consistency in an inconsistent time. That presence goes a long way and allows for you to have the room you need to be at your best. For the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, they hope their presence allows the next generation of children the chance to achieve their hoop dreams.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
On September 25, the long awaited Brooklyn Basketball Training Center opened its doors. Located at the former Modell\u2019s <\/a>site on Flatbush Avenue<\/a> and right across the street from Barclays Center, the the center will serve as an afternoon programming site for kids aged 6-17 in both free and fee-based private training sessions.<\/p>\n Although no one is putting a price tag on what the renovation cost, the final product rivals top-of-the-line programs seen at some colleges and universities.<\/p>\n For Opening Day, the community got to spend time with members of both teams as they welcomed them in to their new space.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n And it wasn\u2019t just players who showed up for the big day. Cutting the ribbon were the team\u2019s owners \u2026 all of them: Joe and Clara Wu Tsai as well as Julia Koch and her son, David who doubles as a Nets basketball operations assistant, a first, along with Sam Zussman, the CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment and driving force behind the center.<\/p>\n \u201cI really want to say that this is extremely inspiring,\u201d Liberty superstar Breanna Stewart told the assembled crowd. \u201cTo kind of reminisce and think about what it will be for a young kid, young boy or young girl to come in here and dream to be it and literally look across the street at Barclays Center and know that that\u2019s their goal. And i feel like as a kid, I\u2019m dreaming of things, and my goal is to play in the WNBA or my goal is to play in the NBA, but how do you do it? And now here having this facility, it\u2019ll show them how they can reach these goals. And with all the technology, between shoot360 and the coaches involved in this, I think it\u2019s gonna be something that everybody wants to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n After the initial pomp and circumstance, everyone got down to business. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, the attendees at the Center got hands on coaching from Brooklyn Basketball coaches and staff. Via shooting drills, individual instruction, and teamwork, we got to see the professionals guide youngsters looking to go on a basketball adventure.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Building a bridge in Brooklyn At 18,600 square feet, the Center has plenty of room for people to practice, play, and have fun.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the greatest barriers to success is access,\u201d said Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Kim Council<\/a> who was also on hand. \u201cOur children need to see and they need to be able to visualize themselves in certain spaces. So I\u2019m incredibly thankful to Joe and Clara Tsai for their investment, not just in this facility but in Brooklyn and the larger community. To BSE Global for all the work that you are doing in order to be a bridge to access in communities.\u201d<\/p>\n That theme of accessibility <\/a>is something we\u2019ve seen throughout the work of the Nets and Liberty. Over the years, we\u2019ve seen the organizations <\/a>invest in various parts of Brooklyn and make their presence felt. They\u2019ve talked in the past about generational fandom<\/a> \u2013 essentially getting fans at a young age \u2026 and keeping them, and when you\u2019re trying to become a positive and prominent presence, you have to meet the community where they are and build that bridge across generations.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s right on point,\u201d Zussman<\/a> told Netsdaily said of the center\u2019s role, \u201cbecause if you think about what generational fandom is, you take your kid to something that one of your parents took you to. We are, on the Brooklyn Nets side, 13 years old in the borough. On the Liberty side, we are six or seven years in the borough. That\u2019s young\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, we have to start somewhere. And I believe that this is an incredible way to start because you start right at the beginning of someone\u2019s fandom career if you will. And you would hope that they would also influence and draw their parents with it. I certainly wouldn\u2019t want to tell my kid to go someplace else then where they want. We think it fits. We are planting roots in this community. It does take generations, and I think this is a fantastic way to get ingrained. I can\u2019t think of a more organic way.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Nets and Liberty, community presence has gone a long way in helping them connect with the fans. Although the Liberty fell short <\/a>of going back-to-back, they saw their attendance increase for the fourth consecutive season and are now firmly entrenched as one of the WNBA league leaders. The combination of success and focus on and off-the court has helped the Liberty be a staple here in Brooklyn and beyond.<\/p>\n And the Nets despite being deep in a multi-year rebuild sold out nearly 99 percent of the seats at Barclays Center last season. Between the two teams, BSE\u2019s two teams put an average of nearly 17,000 fans in the arena on more than 60 dates.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The center will be the hub of the larger Brooklyn youth program which includes free training at the borough\u2019s schools and fee-based training at the center. Indeed, as Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report noted<\/a> this week, the fee-based programs will be pricey. When the eight-week after-school programs start next month, the hour-long sessions will be either $520 for eight hours, or $1,000 for 16 hours. Beyond individualized training, the participants will have access to technology like Shoot 360<\/a> a proprietary software tracks and analyzes skill development in ball handling, passing, and shooting before giving instant feedback on performance. Applicants for the program are encouraged to inquire about financial aid, Oder noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presence matters. When you\u2019re present in someone\u2019s lives, you have a chance to be a force for good.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[49222,5336,3124,4548,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-256358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-barclays-center","9":"tag-breanna-stewart","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-liberty","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115271203948867982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/85098f2eac4c52342e632d59b05f2338.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/f95a021ed76aed426fda870589d89b09.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/21e5d0bbf2376a3fbfb11785b1a52b5a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n