Part-owner of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, Jay-Z, is working with team brass and Adidas to design uniforms for the NBA franchise when it moves into the under-construction Barclays Center in Brooklyn next year, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Jay-Z and team officials gathered near the arena construction site Monday to announce that the team would still be called the Nets, simply replacing New Jersey with Brooklyn.
"From the moment the Barclays Center became a reality, I knew this meant something significant for Brooklyn," Brooklyn-born Jay-Z told a news conference.
The rap mogul also announced that he will open the 18,000-seat arena in September 2012 with up to three concerts.
Jay-Z, Adidas and the Nets are ironing out a logo and team colors, officials said.
No matter what, the logo will feature Brooklyn prominently because the club wants to tap into the borough's world-popular brand identity, officials said.
The team's current logo features the word "Nets" hovering over a basketball.
"Brooklyn will be involved in whatever we do," said Fred Mangione, chief marketing officer for the Nets and Barclays Center.
The Nets' colors -- currently red, silver, white and navy blue -- will likely be changed, officials said. "We will always tinker with things along the way," Mangione said.
Team officials revealed that they had briefly considered renaming the team the Brooklyn Dodgers -- in honor of the beloved baseball team that broke the borough's heart when it fled to Los Angeles in 1957 -- but then nixed the idea.
Developer Bruce Ratner, who is building the arena and is another part-owner in the Nets, said officials stayed with the Nets name out of respect to the team's "loyal fan base."
The Nets started in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans in the former American Basketball Association before moving to Long Island a year later and being renamed the New York Nets, which featured a young Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
The club entered the NBA in the 1976-77 season, and a year later moved to New Jersey.
