Some news from the first day of training camp. Lawrence Frank is pushing defense. Keyon Dooling, Eduardo Najera and Tony Battie are feeling aches and pains. The presence of Russia’s richest man Mikhail Prokhorov looms over the state of the team. Read about it in the Star-Ledger, New York Post, Daily News, Bergen Record, and Sussman Sez.
John Brennan of the Bergen Record says revenues from Nets ticket sales dropped by about one-third last season.
The Baseline and Dime contribute their season previews of the Nets.
Mikhail Prokhorov’s publicist tells Dave D’Alessandro, “Mark Cuban is much more loud.”
Terrence Williams posts the results of his simulated NBA video game season. The results may surprise you.
John Jeansonne at Newsday talks about globalization in sports.
Ball Don’t Lie looks at the top 10 small forwards of the past decade, with former Net Richard Jefferson making the cut.
Third Quarter Collapse is at Orlando Magic training camp and talks to former Net Vince Carter.
Ball Don’t Lie also links to a “Brooklyn Nets” t-shirt:
While a lot of the reports coming out of today’s training camp session were the usual preseason musings about defense first, and who’s the leader, Rafer Alston came forward with a bit of news about the recent reports that he was demanding a trade to the Knicks or Heat because he doesn’t want to be coming off the bench in a contract year.
“You didn’t hear that quote from from me,” Alston told reporters. “It was a weird story. For somebody to put that out there right before camp, I immediately called in (to Kiki) and told them that the story didn’t come from me.”
Keep in mind that this wasn’t exactly an emphatic denial from Rafer. He just denied he was the source of the report in question last week.
Still, it would surprise me to see the Nets trade Rafer unless he really becomes a headache this season. Keyon Dooling’s hip issues are real and may cause him to miss the start of the season. Meanwhile, Devin Harris has never been the symbol of great health. While I understand the Nets are looking to the future this season, a trade of Rafer, with these circumstances in mind, could have potentially catastrophic consequences.
In the meantime, call me only mildly satisfied by Rafer’s response to all this. The recent buzz around Alston is a far cry from earlier this summer where he was coming across as the guy from Orlando who was happy to be here while Courtney Lee was still “hurting.”
Quick Update #2:
NJnets.com is now stating that the webcast will be tomorrow at 11. Again NetsAreScorching will be watching and we will be giving you guys a breakdown of what we see. The site says: “Tune in tomorrow at 11 a.m. to see the Nets Training Camp live exclusively on njnets.com. We are experiencing technical difficulties, we are sorry for the inconvenience. “
Quick Update:
NJnets.com now says to tune in at 11:30 for live training camp video, so we got another 15 minutes or so…
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With the Nets canceling media day yesterday, we as Nets’ fans got deprived of some of the great quotes and other stuff that the other teams got. All we got is this video and some pictures of everyone in their jerseys. Stuff like this:
So as Nets fans, we are just left in the dark right? Wrong. We get to see the Nets first official workout live. Head over to NJnets.com at 11, and you see a link to watch it. I will be watching, and if anything of note happens, I will be able to report it to you guys.
Name: Rafer Alston
Position: PG
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 175
Birth Date: July 24, 1976 (age 33)
Birth Place: Queens, New York
Number: 1
College: Fresno State
Drafted: 1998, 2nd round, 39th overall by Milwaukee
Experience: 9 season
Contract: $5.25 million in 2009-10
On offense:
It has been said a couple of times on this site already, but Rafter Alston is the first true backup PG the Nets have had in a very long time. Rafer was the starting PG for the Orlando Magic the second half of the year, and he lead them to the finals with his solid play in the playoffs. Read more…
While the Nets have only made a handful of roster moves since the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, their summer has certainly been an eventful one. With training camp kicking off this week, NAS is looking back at the events of the past three months, using the Nets own words to tell the tale.
June 25 – Rod Thorn on trading Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson (news release): “On behalf of Nets ownership and management, I want to wish Vince only the best as he moves on to the next phase of his NBA career. He was a true professional in his time with us, and we thank him for his efforts both on and off the court. Ryan worked extremely hard during his rookie season, and we thank him for his contributions last season and wish him well with his new team.”
June 25 – Terrence Williams on being drafted by the Nets (New York Post): “It shows you the direction where the team is trying to go. They’re putting more into me and Courtney Lee to fill what Mr. Carter has done. It shows the type of direction we’re going, as far as running. I think we can fill that spot, that void.”
Read more…
