Brooklyn Nets Add Busta Rhymes and Are Winning Over NYC

The Knicks are New York's team ... but they officially have company.

It's been just over two months since the Nets arrived in Brooklyn and they've only had players on their roster for a few days.  But they're coming into their own with all the vigor of a freakish growth spurt by a younger brother. 

Now Busta Rhymes is a fan of the Brooklyn Nets.  

The suddenly-crowded bandwagon somehow scooted a few black and white shirts around and found room for him ... his sneer, grizzly growl, and Julius Peppers physique also may have helped find him a seat.

The 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival coincided with the Nets July 13th public celebration for Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, and both events showcased the rise of this fan base.

Here are the four main reasons the Brooklyn Nets are winning over their share of New York, and leaving Knicks fans like Jarobi White (A Tribe Called Quest) jealous.

[KEEP READING ... BROOKLYN NETS VIDEOS TOO!]

Nets Showing Brooklyn They've Come to Party

It's a whole new franchise.  

Deron Williams sees it as "a fresh start."  

Everything bland and generic about the Nets in New Jersey has been turned upside down and shaken out ... witness the celebration of Brooklyn's backcourt just two days after the NBA moratorium.  It looked like a Star Wars medal ceremony, before D-Will and Joe Johnson have exchanged a single pass of a basketball.

Nets Are "There"—Wherever It's Happening in Brooklyn

Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest on Coney Island July 4th?  The Brooklyn Nets were there with their hoops party truck.

Street fairs and park flea markets?  The Nets are there.

Hip-Hop Festival?  The Nets were all over it, making rap stars into Nets fans ... and letting the fans of those rap stars see "HELLO BROOKLYN" across the chests of their favorite performers.

The Nets are visible and active in Brooklyn and they're winning people over wherever they go.

Nets Are Personalizing the Social Media Experience

Chime in to @BrooklynNets on Twitter or visit them on Facebook.  

They'll return your tweet.  They embrace the fans, rather than act above them like so many worship-us franchises do throughout New York and all over the world.

The Nets are dominating the New York sports social media landscape right now, making it as much about Nets fans as about Nets basketball.  The fans feel part of it.

This goes beyond good basketball—this is good business.  Buy into your fans, and they'll buy into you.

As long as you have the final ingredient:

Nets Have Star Power

Hype, grass-roots fun and social media courtesy mean nothing if you don't have a product.

The Nets almost didn't, with D-Will leaning toward Dallas for much of his dreadful time in New Jersey. Joe Johnson's contract may look like a bad Billy King move to some hoop heads, but if the trade kept Williams around, it's all worth it.

The Nets have star players.  They don't have Dwight Howard, but they do have top-four talent in the East, which gives them promise of a postseason and maybe even a playoff series win in year one in Brooklyn.

Real Knicks fans will (and should) keep their colors.  But for the generation of New Yorkers who have known nothing of the Knicks but poor quality and detachment from ownership, this is an alternative with open arms.  

Borough President Marty Markowitz has no problem bringing the Brooklyn bravado:

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"For nearly 40 years, the Manhattan Knicks have shown that they can't bring the championship home to New York City. So it's going to take the Brooklyn Nets to get the job done.  Move over Manhattan, enough air balls.  You've had your chance!"

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[And now it's YOUR turn ... tell us ... BROOKLYN NETS FAN or unwavering NEW YORK KNICKS FAN? ... Hit us up for daily Nets videos and chatter @BrooklynFans]