Today, the beat reporters sit down with Rod Thorn, Kiki Vandeweghe and Lawrence Frank to discuss the upcoming season. The main gist of these interviews: the Nets will be better than people are predicting and while they may not have all-stars at every position, there is depth and opportunity for most guys on the roster. Read about it from Dave D’Alessandro, Al Iannazzone and Fred Kerber.
Chris Douglas-Roberts is blogging again. This time he talks about training camp with Brian Hamilton, quoting Jarvis Hayes and Keyon Dooling as saying Hamilton is “the best on-ball defender they’ve ever seen.” CDR also talks about having that “killer instinct” and his Bengal kittens Kieko and Kiana.
The Barclays/Nets Community Alliance is supporting Maine-based Camp Sunshine this October by setting up a special session for Brooklyn-based children who are suffering from hematology and/or oncology.
A Russian blog discusses prospect Nets investor Mikhail Prokhorov’s connections to the Russian Government and what he might have to do in his native land to put such a stake into an American sports franchise.
In a post on his personal blog earlier today, Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov confirmed that he has made a bid to invest in a new Nets arena in Brooklyn in exchange for a stake in team ownership, Reuters is reporting.
According to the blog post, which can be found at md-prokhorov.livejournal.com, Prokhorov submitted his bid to Nets ownership this weekend. The offer would see his Onexim Group provide a loan to ownership to help build a “substantial part” of the Barclays Arena. Onexim would then receive a controlling stake in the franchise, making them the first International owners in the NBA. Last week, it was speculated that Prokhorov could pay upwards of $700 million for the deal.
“For our Onexim group the realization of this very lucrative business project, whose participation was made possible by the world crisis (never in history have foreigners owned an NBA club), is another interesting sports development,” Prokhorov wrote on his blog.
As has been recently discussed, the NBA would have to approve a Prokhorov takeover and he does have a suspicious past that could potentially damage his chances. However, it’s no secret that David Stern and the NBA are dying for more opportunities to open up the sport to more international markets, and they are also avid supporters of professional basketball in Brooklyn. For Brooklyn to happen, Nets owner Bruce Ratner needs financing in place and the ground broken by the end of 2009. If some more of the legal hurdles are cleared, including a hearing at NewYork State’s highest court on October 14 about the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards project, Prokhorov’s involvement could help facilitate the Nets in Brooklyn. While I’m sure Nets fans, New Jersey residents and Brooklyn residents have a wide-range of opinions on the prospects of the “Brooklyn Nets,” it’s crystal clear that the move to Brooklyn is needed in order to establish any kind of short-term stability with the current ownership group.
Name: Josh Boone
Position: PF/C
Height: 6’10″
Weight: 237
Birth Date: November 21, 1984 (age 24)
Birth Place: Mount Airy, MD
Number: 2
College: University of Connecticut
Drafted: 2006, 1st round, 23rd overall by New Jersey
Experience: 3 seasons
Contract: $2.05 million in 2009-10
On offense:
After a promising sophomore campaign where he started 53 games and averaged 8.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 55 percent from the field, Josh Boone took a step backwards last year. He was injured earlier in the season and was replaced in the starting lineup with Brook Lopez, who justifiably held on to that spot even after Boone came back from injury. But Boone was never the same player after being jettisoned from the starting five.
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