Charles Wang always wanted to keep the Islanders on Long Island.
He had to take a detour through Brooklyn to do it.
Wang, who died Sunday at age 74, tried for a decade to build a new arena for the Islanders at the site of the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. In 2012, he abruptly announced a deal that would move the team to Brooklyn beginning in 2015. On the day of the announcement, Wang spoke as if his fight to keep the team on Long Island was over.
But privately, he never gave up working on a return home.