Signage Urges Locals to Help “Bring it to Brooklyn”

All around Brooklyn, including Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, billboards, posters and bus stop ads have popped up in support of a campaign attempting to bring the 2015 NBA All-Star Game to the Barclays Center. NBA officials announced in February that New York would host the 2015 All-Star Game. But, with the city now home to two professional teams and venues, they did not announce which arena would host the event. Many Brooklynites are getting behind the push to “Bring it to Brooklyn.”

“They put a nice new stadium in place, they should put it to good use and that’s what this would do,” said Miguel Angel, a Barclays Center employee who lives in Brooklyn.

The NBA is receiving bids from both teams and arenas, but is open to splitting the events between the two venues. The Rookie Challenge is played on Friday and the skills competition, featuring the dunk contest, is on Saturday night. Festivities culminate with the game on Sunday night.

In 2010 the league held the Friday and Saturday events at the American Airlines Center, home court of the Dallas Mavericks, before moving to Cowboys Stadium for the game Sunday night.

Kenyatta Chambers thinks all of the events should be held in Brooklyn, not Manhattan.

“Madison Square Garden has already had its turn more than once,” he said.

NBA All-Star weekend last came to New York at Madison Square Garden in 1998, the fourth time the Knicks played host to the annual event, while the Nets only hosted the game once in their history in 1982 at Continental Airlines Arena.

“Barclays [Center] is a new place and needs more publicity and popularity, the [Madison Square] Garden is already the garden, they don’t need it,” said Marie Gonzalez, a Brooklyn native donning a Brooklyn Nets cap and Deron Williams jersey.