Brooklyn Bound

Because I just can't stay away, I found myself back in New York last night, this time in Brooklyn for a Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclays Center.

Unlike my last visit, where the train travel was problematic at best, yesterday's trip up was easy.  I got to 30th Street to find the longest line to get on a train that I've ever seen. Lines at that place are funny anyway, because they form without any guidance and hence wind somewhat randomly through the station. This time, it wound from the north entrance to track 3, around to the 29th Street side, then looped across the concourse and all the way across to the 30th Street side on the south side. These lines are kind of silly to wait in, because they let everyone down to the track before the train gets in anyway, but people wait anyway.

I got in almost 2 hours before game time and so decided to walk in the general direction I was going. This took me from Penn Station to Broadway and Houston St., where I boarded the subway for the ride over. While on the train I felt like I really needed coffee, so I searched the Starbucks app for a store near the Barclays Center. Which it did. In London.

So thwarted I figured I'd try to find it on my own (there's one right at the entrance). I've spent a lot of time in that neighborhood. In truth, calling that area a neighborhood is a bit of a stretch. It's more like a crossroads between Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, two of Brooklyn's main thoroughfares. I know it for a variety of reasons- we lived near there when I was little, my orthodontist was there (as were nearly all of Brooklyn's orthodontists, all in one building for some reason), I went to many shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is right there, and my good friends live pretty nearby.  

Whatever you want to call this area, it is completely unrecognizable. The Barclays Center is huge and striking and dominates what is now mostly an urban mall area. I am mystified where people park, but I wasn't driving, so no matter.

Inside, the arena is state-of-the-art. The concourses are wide. The food stands and the food served is nearly all Brooklyn-centric. Maybe a little overdone, but being from Brooklyn, I understand the whole local pride thing. The strangest thing about the food concessions is that all of the condiments stations were attended, as in an arena employee was stationed at every place you could get ketchup, mustard, sauerkraut, etc.  They didn't offer to put ketchup on my French fries for me, but they were there, I suppose, if I couldn't decipher the coded dispensers (K for ketchup and M for mustard) or maybe to make sure I didn't overdo it on the hot peppers. I don't know.

Yes, they have a gourmet macaroni and cheese stand.

The game, about which I had low expectations, was in fact very entertaining. Deron Williams, the Nets star, set a record for 3 point baskets in the first half, and outscored the entire opposing team for the half. In the second half, a guy named Reggie Evans, who is one of the best rebounders and least adept shooters in the league, took center stage, because the opponents kept fouling him in the hope he would miss. Which he did. Over and over. At one point he had made 3 out of 14 shots, and when they fouled him again, the crowd began to chant his name and exploded with cheers when he made both shots.

All in all a fun evening, which I would gladly repeat at some point.