Right now, like most of the Brooklyn Nets, rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson lives in New Jersey (others live in Manhattan). For a lot of teams, players prefer to live near the practice facility, where they spend more time, than the arena where the games are played. And the Nets practice facility is currently in East Rutherford, N.J. (where it was before the team moved to Brooklyn).
That’s about to change — the team’s new training facility in Brooklyn is expected to open in February.
Which has Hollis-Jefferson thinking he may break the mold and move into the city. From the Wall Street Journal.Currently, Hollis-Jefferson shares a Northern New Jersey rental with a friend and Rahlir, who played basketball in college at Temple and professionally in both Europe and the D-League....
Hollis-Jefferson is considering becoming the first Brooklyn Nets player to move to the borough because, as he continues to learn, traffic congestion in and around New York is constant. “It’s really every day.”
He could move into Williamburg, but would he then be too cool to care about the Nets?
The Nets landed Hollis-Jefferson in the deal that sent Mason Plumlee out of town, and it seems a smart pickup. Plumlee was going to have a healthy payday in a couple of years and with the Nets re-signing Brook Lopez they were looking to make a trade to gain a young player (since they have limited picks for the next few years). They got Hollis-Jefferson, and while he looked like a rookie at times he showed some promise in Summer League as well.
The Nets are still struggling to win over fans in the Brooklyn and New York areas (they had the lowest percentage viewership of their television market in the entire NBA). Having a player living in the community would help. Having a team the fans watched grow together and start to win would matter more, but players in the community would help.
