This is just one of the awesome photos (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) that was taken of Terrence Williams as NBA rookies headed over to MSG training facility for the 2009 rookie portrait shoot yesterday. Click on over to Yahoo to check out the full gallery.
Remember when I said Ben Couch’s interview with me was the best one I have done? Well, that didn’t last too long. Today I was able to interview Terrence Willaims, who I once Twitterviewed, over the phone. It is a bit short (only around 10 minutes – because of me, not him), but there is a lot of real good stuff and it is an awesome listen if you can get over me acting like a nervous 12 year old girl. For those who can’t, the transcript is after the jump. You can listen to the windows media file here, or you can just click play on the MP3 file below.
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Again, a big thank you goes out to Terrence Williams. He took the time out of what I am sure is his busy day, and he let me interview him. Transcript can be found after the jump.
Alright. With the schedule now out everyone wants to predict how many wins the Nets will get (I am working on a game by game prediction that should be out tomorrow or Monday), so I am giving everyone a chance to make their own predictions…with a tiny twist…Along with picking a win or a loss, contestants will have to select the margin of victory as well (The Nets will win/lose by this much).
Scoring will go like this pick the game correctly you get 20 points (A wrong selection will get you -5 points). Get the margin of victory correct, and that is another 10 points. Get it wrong though, and you lose how many points you were off. Now that may sound confusing, but here is an example. Lets say you think the Nets will win by 6 and they end up winning by 11, your point total for that will be 15 (20 points for the win, -5 for the margin of victory).
So what are you guys playing for? Well, one lucky winner will get a authentic Nets jersey of the player of their choice. To enter, just download the Excel template here, fill it out and e-mail it to contests@netsarescorching.com with the subject “Pick Em Entry”
You have until the first game of the season and can resubmit your entries however many times you like (the final entry is the one I will use), just title the e-mail Pick Em Entry Correction #1 (or whatever number it is). I will involve myself with this contest as well, but I won’t be eligible for a prize (so when I win, the second place finisher will win the jersey).
If you have any questions about the contest, just leave them in the comments. Good luck fellas!
The Nets’ plans to move to Brooklyn encountered another obstacle on Tuesday as the biggest opposition to the move, The Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn group, asked the New York Court of Appeals to review whether a state agency has demonstrated so much “bias and corruption” that its description of the proposed Barclays Center arena site cannot be accepted. This appeal is completly seperate from the one that had judges agree in June that they will consider overturning a ruling allowing eminent domain to be used at the 22-acre site.
As Develop Don’t Destroy spokesman Daniel Goldstein told John Brennan of NorthJersey.com, “This is a completely different violation of the law.”
My take? Well, I am no laywer or judge so I can’t tell you if these appeals have any legal standing or not, but it seems like Develop Don’t Destroy’s strategy is to throw as many appeals as they can at them hoping to delay the building as long as possible. This is because Nets officials have indicated that bonds backing most of the $850 million in construction costs of Barclays Center must be sold by the end of the year, with a groundbreaking required within the same time frame.
What that means is that if ground isn’t broken by December 31st, the Nets won’t be able to use the $850 million in bonds they aquired, and the project will pretty much be shot. This is why people who claim that free-agents won’t sign with us because of the uncertainty of where we are playing are way off. We should know by December 31st where the Nets will be playing in the future, and the more this project gets delayed by appeals, the more it is looking like this team will be staying in New Jersey…or at least not in Brooklyn.
It has been a little while since I have interviewed anyone, so Ben Couch decided to help me out. If you are a Nets fan, you probably have heard of the name Ben Couch. For the few that haven’t, Ben Couch is a writer for NJNets.com who does a great job with his interviews and articles (For those who haven’t read my interviews in the past, I really enjoy asking Beat Writers/Writers Close To The Team questions about the Nets because they are close to the team and they have a better feel of the team). Ben was kind enough to answer a few questions for me and here they are (If you can only read one answer, please read his take on the Nets players he likes to interview – great stuff!):
As you probably noticed from my previous two posts, the Nets schedule was posted today. I took some time to examine it and here some of the key points:
Zero Nationally Televised Games (Not counted 2 NBATV games) - While this isn’t too surprising, but seeing that it was on Friday, I was hoping to get the VC return game on national TV
We have a rough 4 game road trip within a rough start - When you have a young team with a lame-duck coach (let’s face it, that is what Lawrence Frank is) a good (or at least average) start is important. You get off to a fast start, and your young guys begin playing with a confidence/swagger. Get off to a slow start, and your young guys may drop their heads a bit and they can begin to lack confidence. I don’t know if the Nets are going to be able to get off to a good, let alone average start. Looking at the schedule through November (First 17 games the final 4 will be against the Nuggets, Blazers, Kings, and Lakers on the road), a quick little evaluation has us at 5-12 (at best – we could very well go 0-17), and that won’t impress anyone. In fact, that kind of start might even get coach Lawrence Frank fired.
LeBron Coming To The New Jersey- LeBron is coming to NJ to see the fans on a team that he may play for on January 2nd. Not the best day to have a full crowd show up and get loud (conspiracy anyone?).
What were the schedulers thinking? – My nominee for least attended game in the entire NBA? Sunday December 6th, Nets at. Knicks at 12:00 PM. The Jets don’t play that week, but the Giants have a home game against Dallas. Safe to say nobody (besides myself) will be worrying about the Knicks or the Nets that day.
Home For The Holidays – The Nets have a 7 game homestand starting on December 19th and ending on January 5th, and they don’t play on any of the big holidays. I don’t know if it is too big of a deal, but for a young team, it couldn’t hurt.
Pack Your Bags – The Nets don’t really have any long roadtrips, but they do have a few medium sized ones. Their longest is a 5 game stretch, but they do have three 4 game road-trips.
When Do The Wins Come? – The easiest stretch for the Nets to pick up some wins comes in the middle of their 7 game homestand that I mentioned before. They play Minnesota, Houston (without Yao), Oklahoma City, and New York. Too bad these games are bookended by the Lakers and the Cavs, which stops any momentum we could get from this run.
I am still trying to digest it, but here is the schedule. My opinions coming shortly:
October
Wed 28 @ Minnesota 8:00pm
Fri 30 vs Orlando 8:00pm
Sat 31 @ Washington 7:00pm
November
Mon 02 @ Charlotte 7:00pm
Wed 04 vs Denver 7:30pm
Fri 06 @ Philadelphia 7:00pm
Sat 07 vs Boston 7:30pm
Wed 11 vs Philadelphia 7:30pm
Fri 13 @ Orlando 7:00pm
Sat 14 @ Miami 7:30pm
Tue 17 vs Indiana 7:30pm
Wed 18 @ Milwaukee 8:00pm
Sat 21 vs New York 1:00pm
Tue 24 @ Denver 9:00pm
Wed 25 @ Portland 10:00pm
Fri 27 @ Sacramento 10:00pm
Sun 29 @ LA Lakers 9:30pm
December
Wed 02 vs Dallas 7:30pm
Fri 04 vs Charlotte 8:00pm
Sun 06 @ New York 12:00pm
Tue 08 @ Chicago 8:00pm
Wed 09 vs Golden State 7:30pm
Fri 11 @ Indiana 7:00pm
Sun 13 @ Atlanta 5:00pm
Tue 15 @ Cleveland 7:00pm
Wed 16 vs Utah 7:30pm
Fri 18 @ Toronto 7:00pm
Sat 19 vs LA Lakers 8:00pm
Wed 23 vs Minnesota 7:30pm
Sat 26 vs Houston 7:30pm
Mon 28 vs Oklahoma City7:30pm
Wed 30 vs New York 7:30pm
January
Sat 02 vs Cleveland 1:00pm
Tue 05 vs Milwaukee 7:30pm
Wed 06 @ Atlanta 7:00pm
Fri 08 @ New Orleans 8:00pm
Sun 10 @ San Antonio 7:00pm
Wed 13 vs Boston 7:30pm
Fri 15 vs Indiana 8:00pm
Mon 18 @ LA Clippers 3:30pm
Wed 20 @ Phoenix 9:00pm
Fri 22 @ Golden State 10:30pm
Sat 23 @ Utah 9:00pm
Wed 27 vs LA Clippers 7:30pm
Fri 29 vs Washington 8:00pm
Sun 31 vs Philadelphia 6:00pm
February
Tue 02 vs Detroit 7:30pm
Wed 03 @ Toronto 7:00pm
Fri 05 @ Boston 7:30pm
Sat 06 @ Detroit 7:30pm
Tue 09 @ Cleveland 7:00pm
Wed 10 vs Milwaukee 7:30pm
Tue 16 @ Charlotte 7:00pm
Wed 17 vs Miami 7:30pm
Fri 19 vs Toronto 8:00pm
Sun 21 vs Memphis 6:00pm
Tue 23 vs Portland 7:30pm
Sat 27 @ Boston 1:00pm
Sun 28 vs Washington 6:00pm
March
Wed 03 vs Cleveland 7:30pm
Fri 05 vs Orlando 8:00pm
Sat 06 @ New York 7:30pm
Mon 08 @ Memphis 8:00pm
Wed 10 @ Dallas 8:30pm
Fri 12 @ Oklahoma City 8:00pm
Sat 13 @ Houston 8:30pm
Tue 16 vs Atlanta 7:30pm
Wed 17 @ Philadelphia 7:00pm
Sat 20 vs Toronto 7:30pm
Mon 22 vs Miami 7:30pm
Wed 24 vs Sacramento 7:30pm
Fri 26 vs Detroit 8:00pm
Sat 27 @ Chicago 8:00pm
Mon 29 vs San Antonio 7:30pm
Wed 31 vs Phoenix 7:30pm
April
Sat 03 vs New Orleans 7:30pm
Sun 04 @ Washington 6:00pm
Wed 07 @ Milwaukee 8:00pm
Fri 09 vs Chicago 8:00pm
Sat 10 @ Indiana 7:00pm
Mon 12 vs Charlotte 7:30pm
Wed 14 @ Miami 8:00pm
Vince Carter won’t have to wait long to play in New Jersey again. The Magic come to town October 30th for the Nets home opener. You can find the schedule here, I am going to get it posted and get my opinions on it soon.
Also to note, we have a 7 game home-stand over the holidays (Christmas and New Years), which is pretty good for a young team.
Oh and no nationally scheduled games (except if you count NBATV). More on the schedule soon.