Nets' fond memories of Meadowlands few and far between

Packed houses were a rare sight during the Nets' days at the Meadowlands.

Of all the championship banners that hung in the arena, the most impressive belonged to Bruce Springsteen. That's all you need to know about basketball at Meadowlands Arena, now known as the former home of the Nets.

They closed out a 29-year run in the white box in the swamps on Monday night, but truthfully, the Nets never really belonged there. The Nets didn't actually have a place to truly call their own, not in the strictest sense. They rarely filled the building, even when they were good. And when they were bad? You know what filled the building? Fake crowd noise. In order to add personality and buzz to an arena with all the charm of a mausoleum, the Nets once got the bright idea to record cheers (perhaps from Madison Square Garden across the Hudson) and play the tape after a scored basket.

The Meadowlands was that desperate of a place.

It wasn't designed to be that way. Back in 1981, the arena was a crucial part of the development of New Jersey that was affectionately called the Meadowlands and derisively called the swamps. It was hailed as an arena for the modern age and filled a void as New Jersey's entertainment center. After joining the NBA during the merger, the Nets moved from Uniondale on Long Island to Piscataway, where they played on the Rutgers campus before becoming the prime tenant in the arena named after Brendan Byrne, the sitting governor at the time.

But nobody really called it Brendan Byrne Arena ... or Continental Airlines Arena (when the chance to make sponsorship money overruled honoring the governor) ... or Izod Center, the third and final name. It was always the Meadowlands, and it was always in need of fans.

The Nets never could develop a mad following in Jersey. Some blamed the location, East Rutherford, a small municipality in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe the Nets just never established an identity in New Jersey or any firm roots. Whatever the reason, the idea of pro basketball never quite caught on.

The first season (1981-82) was actually one of the better ones. The Nets drew roughly 13,875 a night and the novelty of the building -- plus a team New Jersey could call its own -- was somewhat strong. They won 44 games, finished fourth in the Atlantic Division and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Two seasons later, the Nets scored one of the bigger upsets in playoff history when they eliminated the defending champion 76ers and Julius Erving in the first round. He was once the most famous player in Nets history, yet he never played a single game in the Meadowlands for the home team. And that brings about another reason pro ball never had a long honeymoon: Dr. J was traded right before the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 and left his best years on Long Island.

Not that the Nets didn't have good players. Micheal Ray Richardson was lovable yet also troubled. Mike Gminski was popular, as was Buck Williams and briefly, Bernard King. Later, there was Drazen Petrovic, who died much too young, and Derrick Coleman, who never really grew up.

Plus, there was the greatest NBA Net of all: Jason Kidd, who threw a number of no-look passes on nights when there weren't many fans looking.

The Meadowlands' Nets were coached once by Larry Brown, Bill Fitch and Chuck Daly, all of whom won NBA titles ... with other teams. So yes, a lack of talent was never a major issue with the Nets, who had lean years but also very good seasons, including back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals with Kidd in 2001 and '02.

The Nets were always compared unfavorably with their competitors across the river, which was unfair, because New York is New York. The Knicks had Spike Lee and the Nets had Joe Piscopo. The Knicks were the heartbeat of the big city and the Nets were strictly suburban. The contrasts were too great and were mentioned far too often by the New York media, which essentially shunned the Nets.

And so they now move to Newark for two years while their new home is being built in Brooklyn. It could be an awkward two years for the Nets, who will be renters in a state that could refuse to invest its emotional support. But then, what else is new?

The good news is the Nets have new ownership on the horizon, a vision and a future elsewhere, and will cross its fingers that Brooklyn is more inviting from a fan standpoint than East Rutherford. One red flag: Brooklyn is home to thousands of Knicks fans. The Nets must convert, or else.

They must somehow do what Springsteen did and carve an identity in their new place. The Boss sold out 15 straight nights in the Meadowlands, enough to get a banner hoisted to the rafters in his honor.

The Nets could do without the banner. All they wanted was a red carpet. It was apparently asking too much.