The home of the Nets is back to treating Brooklyn basketball fans like criminals.
A year after removing metal detectors when fans freaked out over the hyper-security, Barclays Center officials have quietly re-installed the controversial screeners.
Even fans who just want to visit the Downtown Brooklyn arena’s box office have to go through the large, box-shaped contraptions.
“I can understand the whole safety issue and everything — but, just to come in and buy tickets?” said Queens resident Randy Alvin, 39, who dropped by to purchase “Disney On Ice” ducats on Monday.
The metal detectors were re-installed just before the Nets preseason game against the world-champion Miami Heat last week.
“I’m OK with security during a show, but to buy a ticket? No,” said box-office visitor Tim Harris, 36, of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“I might have to . . . catch my events at Madison Square Garden because they don’t do all this. Any other event that goes on, if it goes on at MSG, I’d rather go there than come back here. Because you got to go through this just to spend your money.”
Barclays CEO Brett Yormark insisted that cops and NBA officials wanted the arena to use metal detectors. Barclays Center had been using less-intrusive hand-held wands.
“We believe that walk-through magnetometers will even better serve our guests in providing a safer environment,” Yormark said.
“With the support of New York law-enforcement experts and NBA security [officials] we have decided to utilize walk-through magnetometers at all events.”
MTV, which staged the Video Music Awards at Barclays on Aug. 25, asked for metal detectors and the arena complied — hatching the idea to bring them back, according to Yormark.
“It was found to be a quick and thorough security screening method for guest access into the venue,” he said.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder