Sports stories of the year: no, the Barclays Center & the Nets don't make any lists (beyond SBJ & Yahoo NBA)

Update: see comments below regarding Sports Business Journal and the Yahoo NBA mention. Also see post on the Times round-up Dec. 25.

Edge of Sports columnist Dave Zirin wrote in The Nation, 2012: The Year Our Sports Broke:

The sports headlines of 2012 burst onto the scene the way an alien once burst from the chest of John Hurt, killing its host and repulsing onlookers. To read the Associated Press’s list of “Sports Stories of the Year” is to be assaulted with a degree of crime, corruption and obscene villainy...
The number-one sports story of the year was the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky child rape scandal and subsequent trial. Number two? Lance Armstrong having his titles, his trophies and his tailored reputation methodically stripped away...
Number three was the horror of “learning” that the NFL’s New Orleans Saints put bounties out on opposing players, only to have these charges, to the great embarrassment of Commissioner Roger Goodell, revealed as groundless.

Zirin focuses on the politics of sports, hence my comment:

That's quite a list. Such glaring scandals understandably nudge down some more complicated stories, such as the taint on Brooklyn's oft-celebrated new arena, the Barclays Center.

In case you were wondering, the other sports stories on the AP's list, were:

4. FOOTBALL CONCUSSIONS
5. LONDON OLYMPICS
6. COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
7. REPLACEMENT [NFL] OFFICIALS
8. SUPER GIANTS
9. SUMMITT RETIRES
10. MANNING'S RESURGENCE

That's a very football-centric list: no baseball, and no basketball other than the retirement of legendary women's hoops coach Pat Summitt.

Update: #5 in Yahoo's Top 5 NBA stories list:

5. The Nets move to Brooklyn – The Brooklyn Dodgers were the pride of the New York borough until 1957 when they left for Los Angeles. No major professional sport had been there since until the arrival of the Nets from neighboring New Jersey during the 2011-12 season. The Nets moved into the brand-new, 17,732-seat Barclays Center to officially bring pro sports back to Brooklyn. With co-owner Jay-Z sitting courtside for the Nov. 3 opener, loud chants of "Brook-Lynn" rang through the venue as the Nets defeated the Toronto Raptors 107-100.

Other lists

None of the other lists I saw mentioned the Barclays Center or the Brooklyn Nets, but their rebranding and is certainly a big story, at least from a marketing perspective.

USA Today's list:

10. Linsanity
9. Notre Dame football
8. Miguel Cabrera
7. The New York Giants win the Super Bowl
6. NFL comebacks
5. The Miami Heat win the 2012 NBA title
4. 2012 Summer Olympics
3. BountyGate
2. Lance Armstrong
1. Penn State scandal

The Daily News's list:

20. Giants win World Series
19. A-Rod benched in playoffs
18. Notre Dame football is back
17. Jovan Belcher murder/suicide
16. Miguel Cabrera wins AL triple crown
15. R.A. Dickey's super season
14. Roger Clemens found not guilty
13. Mile-High Manning
12. Got Melk's fake website?
11. Dead Sox fall apart under Bobby V
10. Mets finally get no-no in year of pitcher
9. The rise and fall of Tebow
8. Super Giants pluck Pats... again!
7. Phelps swims into Olympic history
6. Lance Armstrong's fall from grace
5. BountyGate scandal in New Orleans
4. NFL's uses replacement refs
3. Linsanity!
2. The King gets a ring
1. The Jerry Sandusky Scandal

Sports Illustrated lists 65 stories; there's one from BK:

Oct. 24 -- Islanders moving to Brooklyn in 2015