Meet the (Fort Greene) Voice of the Nets

One might say David Diamante is picking up where Vin Scully left off.

Scully, who announced games for seven seasons at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, once called legendary players like Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese to the plate for thousands of egg cream-imbibing, bialy-chomping and stickball-loving fans. And when the team packed up in 1957 for Los Angeles, Scully brought his distinctively New York voice to Chavez Ravine.

The rest—at least in terms of pro-sports game announcing in the borough of Kings—is silence.

Now fast forward to 2011, with this 40-year-old son and grandson of Fort Greene's Clermont Avenue already lending his talents to Brooklyn's game calling comeback.

"It's literally a dream come true," said Diamante, the owner of on S. Oxford and, as of this month, the new voice of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets.

Taking time last week from his busy schedule as a pro sports announcer-slash-small business owner, Diamante met with Patch to talk about his new role.

First off, Diamante acknowledged the importance of the Nets' as the beginning of something huge for Brooklyn. [Click the video to see the Barclays Center as it has risen]

"It's going to be one of the exciting things going," he said. "To have a pro sports team in Brooklyn…It’s going to be such an amazing thing."

Though Diamante was born in Baltimore, he's never strayed too far from his Brooklyn roots, which stretch back generations in Fort Greene on his mother's side and Williamsburg on his father's.

And Diamante said that inherited Brooklyn flavor—both old and new-school—will be his inspiration as he follows Nets forward Kris Humphries' drives to the basket.

Just don't call his style "cheesy."

"I like to keep it 100. If something is exciting, it’s exciting. If it’s not, it’s not. I’m a straight shooter," he said. "I think I straddle the old and the new—I’m a young guy who understands the older jazzy style."

In his swank, wood-paneled cigar shop, Diamante seems as eclectic as the borough he represents on the Nets sidelines, favoring suits and ties, sporting a goatee and long dreadlocks.

And like many Brooklyn residents, he wears many hats—including another gig as a boxing announcer.

Along with his sports passions, Diamante stressed that being a steward of his community still remains one of his highest priorities. 

"I really try to do my part to give back to the place I live. Brooklyn is just this rare place, where the people who live here care so much about making it a better place and that's inspiring," he said.

Diamante was named the World Boxing Cares' Ambassador of Goodwill, helped to raise over $13,000 dollars for the Treasure Island School in Bay Ridge, and continues to speak at schools around the area, promoting education.

Tracing his Brooklyn roots back to 1868 when his family first moved to a home on Clermont Avenue between Dekalb and Willoughby, Diamante proudly claims many happy memories touring the blocks around Fort Greene with his grandfather as a child.

"We'd go for walks around the neighborhood and I remember soaking it all in and loving every minute," he said.

Even so, Diamante spent much of his life elsewhere until ultimately settling down in Brooklyn—now a place that he says he can't think of leaving.

"I love Brooklyn, and this is coming from a guy who has really traveled. But we have something really special here, and I am proud to share in its history," Diamante said, adding, "The best is yet to come."

Pat Conti contributed reporting.