Brooklyn Nets Have Their "First Magical Moment" In Brooklyn

Friday night the Brooklyn Nets had their “first memorable moment” as the “new team” in Brooklyn in their new billion dollar arena when they defeated the Detroit Pistons in double overtime 107-105.

The game turned out to be much more than a normal Friday night game in Brooklyn for me, my son and I am sure many others.

I took my 13 year old son Joey to the game hoping for the Nets to come out strong and put the struggling Detroit Pistons to sleep early. I wanted him to enjoy the early season fan support in Brooklyn with the VIP seats I decided to get last minute.  I also needed to show him what is felt like to be in a real arena where the fans actually supported their team unlike that past few years in New Jersey.

It turns out that we came away with much more then we bargained for and got one helluva memorable moment between father and son.

The game started pretty normal with the Nets and Pistons trading baskets and the crowd was ready to erupt at any point when the Nets would go on a run but that didn’t happen right away.  The game went back and forth until the Nets went on a a huge 21-0 run in the second quarter and the Barclays Center started to rock with the “Broook-lyn….Broook-lyn” chants while Gerald Wallace drained three out of four 3-pointers for a 12 point lead at half.

The second half did not start out well for the Nets as the Pistons came out and beat the Nets to every loose ball and grabbed every rebound to win the quarter 30-14 and left all the fans in their seats with dismay.  How quickly emotions changed as the Nets were down going into the fourth quarter by four points.

The crowd chanted “D-E-F-E-N-S-E” over and over and the Nets listened and got the ball back with a chance to tie with 20 seconds to go and somehow Crash Wallace came flying out of nowhere to tip in a miss with his left hand off a Joe Johnson runner.

Elation throughout the building and the Nets forced overtime.  High fives for me and my son and even the fans in front of us.

The first overtime went back and forth and neither team had a lead larger than two points. The crowd was up and then down and it was nerve wracking for sure.

The stress level was visible on my sons face as he looked at me with hysteria as Johnson came up big with 20 seconds left in the first overtime as he hit a floating jump shot to tie the game at 100 to force a second overtime.

High fives all around again and smiles hoping the Nets could pull this out.

The second overtime started slowly and neither team could score for the first three minutes and the Pistons pushed the lead to three points with two minutes to go and the sadness crept into my sons face until Crash came to the rescue again and gave the Nets a 104-103 lead with .26 left.  The Pistons missed two straight free throws and Johnson got the rebound and hit one out of two free throws to give the Nets a 105-103 lead with .10 seconds to go.

Joey and I high fived once again and held our breathe that the Nets could hold the lead but believe it or not a missed Pistons shot and loose rebound got into the hands of Kyle Singler for a layup and the game was tied at 105 with 5.8 seconds to go and we were stunned.

Stunned.

My son was in awe and looked at me and we both said at the same time, “They have to go to Joe….they have to.”  At that point I watched him hold his hands together tightly and take a deep breathe.

Deron Williams inbounded the ball and gave it right back to Johnson who then drove to the right wing with Tyshaun Prince guarding him and as the seconds wound down leaned in hard and took a step-back 23ft jumper that tickled the back of the net as the buzzer sounded to give the Nets a buzzer-beating 2-OT win at the Barclays Center.

Pandemonium ensued and all I did was hug my son over and over and high five the fans all around us.

Isn’t that what basketball is and going to basketball games is about?

Sharing a moment between a father and a son and making sure my son knows how much I loved spending that moment with him as I never shared a moment like that with my father and it means the world to me.

Thank you Barclays Center crowd……Thank you Nets fans……Thank you Joe Johnson…..and Thank you Joey!

John Paolantonio is a Featured Columnist for www.RantSports.com, covering the Brooklyn Nets. Follow John on twitter @pingshoops and like his page on FaceBook for all of his latest articles, thoughts, and rants.