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Ask any Brooklynite older than 50 when the borough's golden age ended and the answer rarely varies: "When Dem Bums fled Ebbets Field."
The Dodgers' 1957 departure robbed Brooklyn of pro sports and, in many residents' minds, split the borough's history. On one side of the divide lie idyllic days of stickball, trolley cars and summers on Coney Island. On the other, years of urban blight, street crime and racial strife.
But the still-wounded spirits from Canarsie to Crown Heights lifted a little last week at the sound of two words: Brooklyn Nets.
The possibility that developer Bruce Ratner will buy the New Jersey Nets and move them to a new arena near downtown Brooklyn is a chest-swelling shot of civic pride for a borough that's long lived in the shadow of Manhattan, many Brooklynites said.
And they said it using words like "be still my heart," "pride" and "redemption."
But for many who would be the team's neighbors - and for the hundreds who would be displaced by the new arena - Brooklyn Nets has an ugly ring to it.
There are dozens of artists' lofts in old industrial buildings on the wind-swept stretch of railyards and multilane thoroughfares where Ratner wants to build a 19,000-seat arena at the heart of a $2.5-billion residential and commercial complex.
Ratner wants neighborhood residents to voluntarily leave their apartments in exchange for real estate, cash or both, a spokesman said Friday.
If there are holdouts, Ratner would use the government power of eminent domain to condemn the homes.
CUBAN INTEREST: The trading deadline is a month away, and nobody expects the underachieving Mavericks to stand pat. Owner Mark Cuban insists he's "not out there shopping." Then again, what if Cuban sees Portland big man Rasheed Wallace on a post-Christmas discount rack on his next stroll through the mall?
"For the right deal, I wouldn't say no to Rasheed," said Cuban, whose team is in desperate need of inside help.
CAMPAIGN FOR CASSELL: With voting for the All-Star Game starters winding down, campaigning is heating up. And perhaps no player deserves a campaign more than Minnesota point guard Sam Cassell.
The latest returns show Cassell not ranked in the top 10 among guards in the fan voting for the Western Conference lineup, even though he is averaging a career high in scoring at 20.8 and his 50.3 percent shooting from the field is the best among guards.
Joining with Kevin Garnett and Latrell Sprewell, Cassell had led the Timberwolves to a 17-4 record since Dec.1.
Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said he was going to lobby for Cassell with the coaches, who vote for the reserves.
"I've never done anything like this," Saunders said. "Let them be aware when they're voting to take him into consideration. He's the silent assassin. No one knows about him."
AROUND THE RIM: This season LeBron James and the Cavaliers are averaging more than 18,000 on the road and have gone from the 27th-best drawing road team to second, behind the Lakers, according to Sports Business Journal. ... Indiana probably won't suffer the same collapse it did last season, when three family tragedies, two injuries and Ron Artest's 12-game suspension provided huge distractions down the stretch. ... The Raptors, who fired Lenny Wilkens as coach at the end of last season, will save money now that the Knicks have hired him. Toronto was to pay Wilkens $5-million this season, but that amount will be reduced by whatever New York pays him.
- Information from the Associated Press, the Rocky Mountain News, Dallas Morning News and Philadelphia Inquirer.