Shaq Wants To Keep An NBA Team In Newark

The city of Newark still has the New Jersey Nets for another year before they move across a few rivers into their new home in Brooklyn but, if Shaquille O'Neal has his wish, an NBA team will once again slam dunk in front of the empty seats in the Prudential Center. 

Did anyone tell Shaq that wishes are only the legend of bad movies?  Kazaam!

The lame duck New Jersey Nets, who--sadly--  are lately better known for one of their players becoming a Kardashian, will be packing up their gear and head for the state-of-the-art Barclays Center with their new first-name-- Brooklyn-- in 2012.  It's a good possibility that most of the few hundred fans in Newark will probably notice or care.

O'Neal, who was raised in Newark, has talked about wanting to own a team in the past and responded to that question in a wide-ranging interview in Tuesday's New York Times about his desire to bring one back to Newark.

"Yes, And I'm looking forward to bringing a team to Newark," he said.  "I haven't spoken to Mayor Booker about it yet, but I'm working on it.  I know Newark can support an NBA team.  And I'm going to be one of those guys that's going to bring a team here."

The former NBA star has talked about owning an NBA team in the past and originally had his eyes set on moving the Nets to his home town back in 2009, when the Nets were still playing in the Meadowlands, and the new Prudential Center was without an NBA team.

"If I was a general manager or owner of that team, I'd be playing in Newark right now," he said back then.

That was before the team did move to Newark's Prudential Center and played before empty seats-- some selling for .43 cents on the Internet-- and empty promises to the city as well.

Now, Shaq is pushing to get an NBA team back in Newark, but it could be an uphill battle.

O'Neal has the star power and the NBA pedigree to possibly broker a deal and move one of the other struggling NBA teams to Newark-- look what the Nets minority-owner Jay-Z did-- and there are sure to be a couple of teams on the verge of collapse if the NBA lockout ever ends.  Did I hear someone say Newark Timberwolves? 

But, putting a third NBA team in the New York metro area would be risky-- considering that the Nets could barely draw fans when the only other local team was the Knicks.

O'Neal, and his development company have been involved in many community projects in the city of Newark, but this is one wish that even a blue genie couldn't grant. Kazaam!

Jay-Z Will Announce Concerts Promoting the "Brooklyn Nets" New Name and Home

Rapper Jay-Z plans to headline a series of concerts to promote the opening of the new Nets arena in downtown Brooklyn and make it official, the team's name will be changed to the "Brooklyn Nets."

Goodbye Jersey shore and hello Coney Island boardwalk.

The rap mogul, who owns a small percentage of the New Jersey Nets, will announce today that he will perform at eight concerts to hype the opening of the arena.  Expect his expecting wife Beyonce to join him and a few other performers to help entice fans to make the trek over to team's new home at the Barclays Center-- which is set to officially open Sept. 28, 2012.

Jay-Z is kicking off a major-marketing campaign aimed at luring Knicks fans from Madison Square Garden over or under the East River into the team's new digs-- where all-access passes are going for $15,000 a season.

Even with the .49-cent tickets you could scrounge on StubHub for some New Jersey Nets games last season, there were still a lot of empty seats in Newark's Prudential Center.  Jay-Z is making sure that doesn't happen with the Brooklyn version.

The entertainer is using his highly popular brand and image to help sell the Brooklyn Nets to the New York City audience for the first time.  The well-known star's rugged face is way more fan-friendly than using majority owner Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's sourpuss.

Net CEO Brett Yormack said, "Jay-Z will be the face of the team's fourth-quarter campaign" in an attempt to sell the 4,400 all-access passes in the 18,000 seat venue.

Jay-Z will be lending his name and face to a poster with the slogan; "Get all access to Jay-Z's and other events at the Barclays Center."

The campaign will focus on how easy it is to get to the new Brooklyn arena and target the money men working on Wall Street and living in ritzy downtown neighborhoods like Soho and Tribeca.  It even claims you can cut seven minutes of subway time by opting for the Nets over the Knicks from downtown on the Q train.  Who knew?

The Nets new name was a badly kept secret, but after today's announcement, it will be official.  Brooklyn will have it's own name on the front of a major sports league jersey for the first time in over half-a-century.

It remains to be seen if Brooklyn's own Spike Lee will jump ship from his beloved Knicks to his hometown borough.  The film director likes wearing clothes that say "Brooklyn" on them.

Hey, the Nets now even have a Kardashian on their team. If Jay-Z's campaign fails, there's nothing that family's PR machine won't promote.

HBO Developing Dramatic Boxing Series Based On Mike Tyson

HBO has ordered a pilot from Doug Ellin, the writer and producer of "Entourage," for a dramatic series based on the rise of a fictional Newark, N.J. boxer.  Ellin has enlisted Spike Lee and Mike Tyson to co-produce.

"Da Brick" is the title of the series about the up and coming fighter loosely-based on Tyson's own rise to fame as a boxer. 

The idea for the project stemmed from a conversation Tyson had with Ellin while the former heavyweight champion was doing a guest spot on "Entourage" in 2010.

"Why don't you do with my life what you did with Mark's [Wahlberg] life on 'Entourage?' Ellin said Tyson asked him while on the set.

Simple as that, a gritty new series was born.

The title "Da Brick" is a reference to Newark being know as "The Brickyard City" or "Brick City."

Ellin will act only as producer of the series with co-producer Jim Lefkowitz while "Entourage" ends it's eight year run on HBO.  The head writer will be John Ridley, Lee's co-writer in a film-in-development about the Los Angeles riots.

It is not known if Tyson will hone his "Hangover 2" acting chops and appear in a  role or guest spot on the series but, his wife, Lakiha Tyson will co-executive produce with Azim Spicer.

Lee's people have been scouring local New York City area boxing gyms for locations and actors.  The casting directors are looking for actors who "have chops" and fight experience.

By basing a series on the dwindling fight game, does HBO have a Pacquiao or a patsie on it's hands?

Wahlberg produced "The Fighter," last year's Academy Award nominated and winning film about boxer 'Irish' Mickey Ward and his brother Dicky, which successfully brought the world of boxing to the masses.

On the other hand, FX's "Lights Out," a fine series about a fighter coming out of retirement, was cancelled after a single critically-acclaimed season. 

Even if Tyson doesn't appear in the series, it will probably not be too difficult to separate the fiction from the facts regarding the one-man demolition crew.  There is too much of his life that was public domain.

Both inside and outside of the ring, Tyson's recollections alone bring a solid foundation of incidents for the writers to incorporate into the scripts.  The out-of-control fighter has endured both the glory, the scandals and the shame behind the sport.

I wonder if there will be pigeons and facial tattoos?