Rename Brooklyn Nets, Barclays For Jackie Robinson, Pol Says

BROOKLYN, NY —A Brooklyn assembly member is taking calls to rename the Barclays Center after Jackie Robinson to the next level, calling for the Nets to change their name for the baseball legend, too.

Assembly Member Robert Carroll sent a letter Tuesday to the NBA commissioner and Brooklyn Nets owner suggesting that they change the team's name to pay homage to Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball.

The idea comes after a group of locals renewed calls to rename the Barclays Center, where the Nets play, after the Brooklyn Dodgers player.

"While I am supportive of the idea to rename the Barclays Center 'The Jackie Robinson Arena,' I believe that the Nets and the NBA can play a more powerful role by renaming the team," Carroll wrote. "The Nets are Brooklyn's only major professional sports team and it is time to make the name more current and relevant to hometown fans."

The Nets have had the same name since 1968, when they moved from New Jersey to Long Island and became the New York Nets. The team moved back to New Jersey in 1977 and finally to Brooklyn in 2012.

The idea to rename the team and the Barclays Center — which has become a gathering spot for Black Lives Matter protests the past few weeks— comes as calls to rename prominent places for Civil Rights heroes and remove offensive names or monuments mount across the country, including in Brooklyn.

For the Barclays Center, the idea to rename it for Robinson started back in 2006 with Park Sloper Arthur Piccolo. Piccolo told the Brooklyn Paper he thought now is the perfect time to revisit the suggestion.

“You’re seeing certain individuals being criticized and their statutes rightly removed, and here’s the opportunity to do something symbolic,” Piccolo said. “What I’m proposing is an obvious idea.”

Piccolo contends that the renaming could be a way to finally give Robinson, who lived and is buried in Brooklyn, the recognition he deserves in the borough.

Robinson spent ten seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1956 and was a vocal civil rights advocate throughout his life.

The idea has even gotten the support of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who called this week to make it a reality.

The Barclays Center got its current name after the stadium’s developer, Bruce Ratner, sold the arena’s naming rights to the London-based banking group in 2007, according to the New York Times.

Some who back the idea of renaming the stadium for Robinson said owners could get around this deal by including Jackie Robinson in the existing name for a title like "Jackie Robinson Arena at Barclays Center," according to a blogpost.

Read the Brooklyn Paper's full story on Piccolo's idea here.