Back to the New York Islanders Newsfeed

With Nets and Islanders struggling, Barclays Center is having a winter of discontent

Neil Best

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, then returned in 1985. His SportsWatch column debuted in 2005.

“Brooklyn” the brand has had an excellent decade, and some of the reasons why were evident on the main concourse at Barclays Center on Wednesday night.

The place teemed with mostly young, mostly fashionable, ethnically and racially diverse people sampling bars and restaurants and generally seeming to have a fine, cosmopolitan time, living the life of New York City’s hottest borough.

What they were not doing was watching the game taking place on the nearby basketball court, in which the Nets led by 18 points over the Heat, then inevitably found a way to lose, 109-106, to fall to 9-36.