The Brooklyn Nets …. LeBron James …. Battle for Big Apple affections …. Hot topics for sure among New York-area hoops fans with news that Russia’s richest man is riding to the $200 million rescue of the Nets, and Brooklyn may once again rise to alter the sports landscape of The City.

The long-ago announced plan to relocate the Nets — struggling to establish an identity and profitability in the swamplands of northern New Jersey — to Brooklyn has been an on-again, off-again mess with team owner, real estate mogul Bruce Ratner, fighting zoning boards, politicians, preservationists, environmentalists and the general economic morass for a mega development deal that included a new arena for the NBA club.

This put the Nets into a no-man’s land and a deconstruction of a once-successful team with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson stripped away from a team that earlier in the 21st Century went to back-to-back NBA Finals.

Now with banking billionaire and former hoops player Mikhail Prokhorov an NBA owners’ vote away from joining the league as in-charge of the Nets, all things once again seem possible.

Not since the Brooklyn Dodgers fled Ebbets Field in 1957 for the sunshine promise of Los Angeles has the fabled borough had a big-league team.

That is the dream of one of the limited partners brought in by Ratner — rapper and record producer extraordinaire Jay-Z.

Whether or not sports-mad Brooklynites would be quick to abandon the New York Knicks remains to be seen — but adding some star power wouldn’t hurt.

That’s where Jay-Z was supposed to come in, and lure his buddy, LeBron, to leave Cleveland as a free agent after the 2010 season put Brooklyn on the championship map once again.

The Knicks (and every other team with hard-earned salary cap room) have also targeted King James, and their resident celebrity, film director Spike Lee, will be playing his charm and connections as well.

LeBron, however, has made it clear he intends to play where NBA titles can be won so a season of suspense about his post-2010 home appears in the offing.

Even if spurned by LeBron, Prokhorov would have plenty of opportunity to spend if he were inclined to battle the Knicks for NBA supremacy in New York.

Other big names expected to be testing free agent waters could include Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, and Michael Redd.

PHOTO: LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers shoots as he demonstrates a basketball drill during a promotion event in Shanghai August 28, 2009. James is in China. REUTERS/Aly Song