House Hunting on a Brooklyn Nets' Budget

When the Brooklyn Nets start the NBA season on Flatbush Avenue this fall, none of those players will actually call Brooklyn home, according to a story in the Times.

It’s for two reasons. One is that they’re contracted with a training center in New Jersey for two more years, so living in between in Manhattan makes more sense, transportation-wise. But the other is a “lack” of adequately-sized places to live, says 28-year-old point guard Deron Williams:

For Williams, family concerns were paramount. He and his wife Amy have four children: ages 9, 6, 3 and 18 months. They want a four-bedroom apartment — a virtual black swan in the New York housing market.

“Brooklyn has some great places,” Williams said. “But four bedrooms, they don’t have it.”

As neighbor Gordon Rothman, who pointed us to this story, says, “Someone needs to give him a tour.”

In July, Williams signed a five-year contract with the Nets worth almost $100 million. For less than 2% of that, his family could be sitting very comfortably in a completely renovated standalone house in the Ditmas Park area. We’re only about four miles from the stadium, and the traffic will probably be better than coming in from Manhattan (though it’ll still be quicker to take the subway–Atlantic is just seven stops from Cortelyou on the Q).

The Times offers its suggestions, but none are in our area. Here’s what we would pick if we’d just been signed to the Nets:

• He thinks four bedrooms are hard to find? How about eight? The house at 164 Westminster gives his family room to grow.

• But maybe that’s not quite to the family’s liking. Since they’ve got a couple of years of practices in Jersey, why not buy a place now and fix it to their specifications? 274 Argyle looks like it’s in great shape already, but a fancy new kitchen and bathrooms–maybe a sauna?–couldn’t hurt. Plus, the kids could walk to school at PS 139, and you could challenge suckers to games at the basketball court there.

• Don’t want to be right in the thick of things, as far as our neighborhood goes anyway? How about 646 E 22nd Street. You could gut renovate the whole thing to your specifications, and it’s easily accessible to Ocean Ave, so a quick ride to the arena.

So if you were a new Nets player, where would you live? Close to the arena in one of those new condos, in a big house in our area, in Manhattan, or like many other professional athletes that play in NYC, would you head outside of the city’s boundaries?

Photo of Williams’ kids in Brooklyn Nets gear from his Facebook page.