As part of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary celebration, the Brooklyn Nets have unveiled their Legacy Project to mark the league’s anniversary with the re-opening of the renovated Joseph Miccio Community Center Fitness Room in Red Hook.
The Voice of the Brooklyn Nets, Olivier Sedra, served as MC for the event, as BSE Global Executive Vice President of Community Relations and Communications Mandy Gutmann was joined by Michelle Yanche, Executive Director of Good Shepherd Services, Roland Knight, Sr. Program Director of the Joseph Miccio Community Center, Coucilmember Alexa Aviles, and Nets Legend Albert King.
The fitness room was damaged during Hurricane Ida in 2021 and was unusable until the renovation. “To commemorate the NBA’s 75th Anniversary, teams from around the league have been working hard to renovate spaces in their communities,” said Gutmann. “Particularly, we’re focused on spaces where youth live, learn, and play and this is a space where youth definitely learn and play, so very fitting, which is why we identified this space as our 75th Anniversary Legacy Project.”
The Miccio Community Center serves families from the NYCHA Red Hook Houses with programming throughout the year. “Healthy living, first and foremost,” said Knight. “We want to try a culinary program we have as far as teaching our youth how to cook and eat right and eat clean and then combine that with a physical workout. We also want to use this space as a mentoring space, not just to work out but to have conversations about working out, the importance of being physically fit and being able to have discussions here.”
As part of the renovation, the Nets provided treadmills, a bike machine, weights and racks, benches, and other multifunctional equipment. In addition, the space was decorated with three murals. “This represents Red Hook,” said Knight. “It represents the Miccio. It represents each and every one of us. Every one in this room, all our participants. We all want peace and we all want unity and unfortunately that’s been very hard the last couple years, especially during the pandemic, but I think we’re on the road to recovery.”
Good Shepherd Services manages the Miccio Community Center Fitness Room and operates over 80 programs serving nearly 30,000 youth and family members throughout New York City. “The young people want to be engaged in activity and we’ve got to make those things available,” said Yanche. “For young people to get involved in healthy exercise and activity, I think post-pandemic, because we’re all needing to be more active, to exercise again, I think it’s going to be a real draw.”
Gutmann offered thanks to the NBA, New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, Good Shepherd Services, NYCHA, and the Miccio Community Center. “Brooklyn Nets, it’s been a pleasure, it’s been an honor,” said Knight. “I can’t begin to speak on how important this is for our community. I’m looking forward to continuing this partnership because as I said to other people this is just the first step in taking our community center to the place it needs to be and that’s a place where everyone can go.”