Tag: John Abbamondi

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The 2020-21 NBA season should be one of the best ever for Nets fans — certainly the best since the franchise made back-to-back NBA Finals runs with Jason Kidd and company — with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving both ready to lead Brooklyn as one of the top teams in the East.

Of course, there’s still the matter of when Nets fans will be able to watch these players in person at Barclays Center as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

While the players and staff are getting ready for their 2020-21 run, other members of the Nets organization have been working to ensure everyone will be safe at Barclays Center once they’re allowed to return.

“We have lots of plans. Those plans have served as a template, but we’ll adapt. I know we’ll be ready whenever the season starts,” Nets CEO John Abbamondi told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “And we’ll do everything in our power to keep not only our players, but our fans healthy as we come back in some sense of normalcy as we wage this fight against the virus.”

But Abbamondi and his staff’s work doesn’t stop at safety measures.

Although he didn’t get into specifics, Abbamondi told Lewis the organization is doing more than just improve the roster to better the Barclays Center experience for fans.

“We’re taking advantage of this time. We’ve tried to be strategic … use this time to prepare ourselves for when we do bring fans back. We’re investing a lot right now to make the Barclays Center experience even better than it was.”

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While the Nets are showing love for their old home in New Jersey for the first time since the franchise moved out, the organization is only able to do so effectively because of the role it now has in its current home of Brooklyn.

Of course, the excitement surrounding the team continues to mount as the 2020-21 NBA season — and Kevin Durant’s Net debut — draws near. But there’s more to the organizations’ bond with Brooklyn.

That’s largely due to the fact Barclays Center turned into something besides a basketball arena in the midst of a tumultuous 2020.

Over the summer, Barclays Center became the rallying point for those who met to protest in Brooklyn in response to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“The fact the citizens of our borough felt this was the appropriate place to gather … we’re honored to be associated with that,” BSE Global CEO John Abbamondi told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “The players have spoken out on issues that not only did they care about but resonate with many, many, many of our fans and fellow citizens. Those two things coming together is behind what you saw this summer.”

And now, on Election Day, Barclays Center is serving as a polling site.

The organization is about more than basketball — which Abbamondi is proud to see.

“We were thrilled we were able to step forward and assist with that effort so that [Brooklynites] could come to [the arena] and exercise their right to vote,” he said. “Just because the building is shuttered, and we weren’t able to entertain fans the way we’re used to, doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference in the community.”

“I’m proud of this organization and the role we’ve been able to play in this community all summer and into the fall. Every sports franchise aspires to be more than a business, more than a source of entertainment, but be interwoven into the lives of the folks in the community. We saw that happen spontaneously.”