Hello Brooklyn: Welcome Your Own Brooklyn Nets.

When the Dodgers left Ebbets Field for the palm trees and sunny weather of Los Angeles in 1957, Brooklyn was left without a professional sports franchise.Talks of the Nets leaving New Jersey started back in 2002-2003. The original projected time for the Nets to play in Brooklyn was back in 2006 and then again in 2011. Failed negotiations among the courts and residents, as well as other business factors pushed back the anticipations of seeing Brooklyn home to a professional team again. But all of that changed when Russian billionaire, and now owner, Mikhail Prokhorov bought the former New Jersey franchise in 2010 and made plans to relocate them out of the Meadowlands swamp to Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn.

New Yorkers have always had Madison Square Garden as the mecca of basketball with the Knickerbockers as their home team. But starting this fall after five decades of not having a professional team in the borough of Brooklyn and with the money and power behind Prokhorov, Ratner and Brooklynite, and hip-hop mogul and minority owner Jay-Z, there will be a noticeable shift in home team pride as many folks have already started talking about the switch of colors from Knicks' orange and blue to Nets' black and white.

Well, just about everyone. When the New York Times interviewed film director and New York Knicks lifetime fan, Spike Lee, in August his response was: "I wish I had a dollar for every time people ask me that - I could finance another film...No, no and no. Can't do that. Can't. I am orange and blue, baby." While Spike may not convert to the black and white of the Brooklyn Nets rest assure, we can all bet to see those infamous specs on his 5'5 frame decked out in orange and blue sitting courtside with Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and other notable Brooklyn stars and celebrities at least twice during the regular season.

Although they are not a 100% NBA Championship caliber team just yet, the Nets are still a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference, led by All-Star point guard Deron Williams. The acquisition of All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson improves the talented backcourt that can collectively score 50 points on any given night. Add swingman Gerald Wallace, rising star center Brook Lopez, and a promising young star named MarShon Brooks, and you've got a team that can very well be a playoff team every season.

One major acquisition that did not occur, was the hopeful signing of All-Star perennial center, Dwight Howard, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. Had the Nets been able to pull off that blockbuster signing, Brooklyn would've been looking to start filling their rafters with championship banners as early as June 2013.

The Nets will be the first team in 55 years since the Dodgers, to represent Brooklyn as their home on November 1^st when they open the 2012-13 NBA season against their rival, New York Knicks, on their home floor in front of 18,000 screaming fans in the Barclays Center. Eleven trains, including the Long Island Railroad, will pull into and out of Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center giving access to people from all over NYC and Long Island. More than ever before, people will now be able to attend Nets home games and concerts at the $1 billion arena. Prokhorov has promised to bring the borough its first championship within the next three years, the first, and last, since Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers did in the fall of 1955. Until then...let's just say...Brooklyn is proud again.