The house was full last night. The Prudential Center looked, felt and sounded like a vibrant NBA arena housing a team that mattered.
Unfortunately, it was all a mirage, which is why the Nets are fleeing New Jersey after 35 years. The sellout crowd filled the building more out of curiosity, to attend the last-ever Nets game in New Jersey perhaps so they could one day say they were there (for whatever that might be worth).
The truth is New Jersey and the Nets were never perfect together the way the state’s former governor Tom Kean once crowed about his constituents in that ’80s ad campaign.
The Nets have not exactly been to Jersey what Bruce Springsteen has been. Springsteen has always been the main act; the Nets always a sideshow. And now it is the Nets, not Springsteen, who are born to run — straight to their fancy new arena in Brooklyn, a place they pray will be their promised land.
Before the Nets lost 105-87 to the 76ers last night in their final home game in New Jersey, in a fitting slap to the face of the floundering franchise, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made it clear he was boycotting the game, saying: “My message to the Nets is ‘goodbye.’ They want to leave here to go to Brooklyn? Good riddance.’’
That the Prudential Center was sold out last night was perfectly ironic. Had the Nets gotten that kind of attention over the last 35 years, they might not be leaving New Jersey.
That irony was not lost on 66-year-old Herb Turetzky, the team’s official scorer, who worked his 1,177th consecutive Nets home game last night. He worked 1,462 of the 1,465 games the Nets played in New Jersey.
One of the three missed home dates for Turetzky, who was a school teacher, was a March, 1, 1978 game with the Atlanta Hawks in Piscataway when he had to attend a parent conference.
“That night, I got home and caught the end of the game on TV,’’ Turetzky recalled before the game. “I had a friend of mine, Mike Becker, take over to score the game for me that night and late in game he told the Hawks trainers they had one timeout left. But he had made a mistake. The Hawks had no timeouts and when they called one at the end of the game they got hit with a technical foul.’’
The Nets ended up winning the game in overtime.
“After the game, Steve Hawes, the center for Hawks, threw a towel into Mike Becker’s face as he was walking off the floor,’’ Turetzky said.
Last night, Steve Hawes’ son, Spencer, played center for the 76ers against the Nets, scoring eight points in 17 minutes.
“That hits me hard to think about it,’’ Turetzky said.
Nothing hit Turetzky harder than the low point of his time with the team when beloved Nets star Drazen Petrovic was killed in a 1993 car crash in Germany.
Turetzky’s son, David, was a ball boy for the Nets and happened to wear the same size sneakers as Petrovic, who would give him his used pair after almost every game. David Turetzky wore Petrovic’s size 12s in every high school game he played.
With Turetzky working his last game in Jersey after all these years, this bit of irony was as irresistible as Springsteen’s “Born to Run’’ blaring through the building speakers as the fans fled out for the last time last night: He’s from Brooklyn.
Turetzky grew up in Brownsville, went to high school at Thomas Jefferson and college at LIU Brooklyn — a 3-point shot down Flatbush Avenue from the Nets’ new arena. And, like the Nets, Turetzky can’t wait to get out of Jersey. So much for teary-eyed nostalgia.
“I’m planning to wear a tux to the home opener next year; that’s how excited I am about it,’’ Turetzky said. “It’s like going home for me.’’
Maybe, after all these years of nomadic existence in Jersey, the Nets will finally find a true home. Maybe the Nets and Brooklyn will be perfect together.