The partnership behind the Nets began to take shape as the 1997- 1998 basketball season ended, when Chambers called Finn Wentworth. "Have you ever thought about putting together a partnership like you do in real estate in order to do some good for other people?" Chambers asked, according to Wentworth. "I think there is a real opportunity here for us to buy the Nets."

Wentworth was one of a Newark newspaper printer's ten children. He attended Lehigh University on a track scholarship. After beginning a career as a commercial real-estate broker, he and his partner, Stanley Gale, made a small fortune in the early nineties by buying up properties at depressed prices. Backed by the deep pockets of Wall Street investment banks at a time when many landlords were bankrupt, Gale & Wentworth built its commercial-real-estate portfolio from 1.4 million square feet to just over 24 million around the country, and reaped windfall profits as property values bounced back to new heights.

Wentworth had been a Nets fan from childhood. He customarily showed up for games with his kids around 6:15 to avoid traffic and watch the team work out. The end of the 1997- 1998 season had been very discouraging. "The Nets were knocked out of the playoffs, the strike was coming, and they were leaving the state -- it was in all the papers."

The previous owners realized that they could no longer keep up with changes in the basketball business. A group of businessmen led by New Jersey computer exexecutive Henry Taub, the owners saw that the Nets faced teams owned by entertainment giants like Fox, Time Warner, Disney, and Cablevision. Their competitors often owned several teams, arenas, television channels, and other media outlets, enabling them to bargain more effectively for sponsorship deals and hold onto more broadcasting profits. Worst of all, the media conglomerates were bidding players' salaries into the stratosphere.

The Nets, on the other hand, were forced to share their potential profits with networks, radio stations, and the Meadowlands. If the Meadowlands had already sold serving and advertising rights to Coke, why would Coke or any other cola company pay to sponsor Nets broadcasts? Until recently, the team couldn't attract top players, and had languished for years near the bottom of the league. Meanwhile, at the end of the 1997- 1998 season, the league was bracing for labor strife. Tired of their losses, Taub and the six other owners prepared to sell the team.

Two well-funded Long Island bidders emerged. One of them, the banker, real-estate developer, and Islanders owner Howard Milstein, reportedly sought to install them in a new arena where the Nassau Coliseum now stands. Around it, he planned to develop new retail space, offices, and a hotel.

Chambers told Wentworth he envisioned a similar project in downtown Newark, toward more charitable ends. Wentworth and Gale agreed to join the investment group and apply their real-estate expertise. Wentworth would handle the business while Katz managed the basketball matters and acted as front man for the ownership group.

Katz had never even been to the Meadowlands before he bought into the team. Instead, he was a courtside fixture at Philadelphia 76ers games. "He was a rabid fan, always standing up and screaming and yelling," says Snider, the team's owner. Katz taunted the 76ers' Allen Iverson so relentlessly ("pass the ball!") that the team asked him to move his seat.

Katz brought in his old friend Cosby as a partner. The Katz group's bid appealed to the old owners, most of whom agreed to retain a stake in the team, in part because they wanted the Nets to remain in the state. The league approved the sale in the fall, and the new owners drafted company by-laws calling for "an irrational commitment to the city of Newark." There Katz and company plan to make the Nets the cornerstone of a redevelopment plan that resembles a nonprofit version of the real-estate scheme in the movie Chinatown. Wentworth's partner, Stanley Gale, is spearheading an effort to relocate the team to central Newark, where they hope to build the proposed arena. They are already arranging for the city to condemn a 40-block area surrounding the site. Proximity to the arena will send the price of the land soaring, then another newly created nonprofit will handle the redevelopment, spending the proceeds on funding social services. None of the investors own nearby land themselves, so proceeds from the redevelopment will belong to the nonprofit.