When the franchise completed its relocation from New Jersey to the newly constructed Barclays Center ahead of the 2012-13 season, ownership chose the name Brooklyn Nets to establish a distinct, hyper-local borough identity. Because the iconic New York Knicks already claimed deep historical ownership over the overarching "New York" identifier across the entire metropolitan area since 1946, adopting the Brooklyn moniker allowed the newly arrived team to tap into the unique cultural prestige, gritty independence, and distinct pride of the specific borough.