These Boos are For You Bruce Ratner
by Mark Ginocchio
Dec 3, 2009 Bruce Ratner, Opinion
The boos that filled an otherwise empty Izod Center as the Nets set a record in futility against the Dallas Mavericks last night should be meant for one person, and one person only.
Bruce Ratner.
Lawrence Frank may have been fired, Kiki Vandeweghe may be the GM and now Frank’s interim replacement, and Rod Thorn may be the team’s president, but the mess that is the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets is unequivocally on current owner Bruce Ratner.
As we’ve seen in Ratner’s dealings with the Atlantic Yards Development – the supposed “future home” of the Nets if Ratner could ever find a way to get financing in place – Bruce likes to blame the architects when things get too controversial and/or expensive. That’s why he dumped Frank Gehry earlier this year to go with a more dumbed-down variation of the development. Similar logic was used when at 0-16, the organization decided to dump Lawrence Frank.
But Ratner can’t just keep blaming architects and coaches forever. At some point, he needs to own up to the fact that as the owner of this franchise, he’s been the ultimate failure where it matters most – on the basketball court, not in the courtroom pushing people out of their homes. The hypothetical day Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov takes the reins of this organization can’t come soon enough. One can only hope that afterwards, Ratner crawls back in a hole somewhere, never to torture a sports team, a fanbase and a community, like Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, ever again.
As Nets fans, Ratner has given us no other choice but to believe that Brooklyn is the end game and a return to some level of normalcy for this franchise. We have to believe this, because the possible alternatives are even more nightmarish.
If you follow the Nets closely, you likely already know the many transgressions of Bruce Ratner. The penny pinching. The out-of-whack priorities. The desire for real estate and geography over winning and cultivating who’s left of your fanbase.
I sincerely hope last night’s boos were for Bruce Ratner, because there’s no other rational explanation for them. Why boo the players? It’s the equivalent of shooting the messenger. Have the Nets had agonizing lapses on offense and defense during their losing streak? Of course. When you look at the faces of Brook Lopez or Chris Douglas-Roberts, do you think it’s for lack of trying? I hope not. The players weren’t the ones directed to trade away their three franchise players for expiring contracts and underdeveloped “youth.” All while Ratner kept his eye on the ultimate prize – HIS ultimate prize.
To use an old cliché, the fish stinks from the head down. At last night’s game, a fan who brought in a sign, “End Ratner’s Reign of Error,” was asked to put his sign away for being against arena regulations – whatever that means. An owner of Ratner’s greed and incompetence should be against NBA regulations. Someday, I hope David Stern realizes this.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:51 PM
Oh please. The Nets were in the top five or seven payrolls for three or four straight years.
No one showed up at the IZOD when the Nets were winning. All this gibberish without noting the team’s HISTORIC lack of fan support. Not to mention the horrific draft choices from the second round in 2002 to the first round in 2008.
Ratner sucks as an owner. Big news. What has Thorn done for his $5.5 million lately? Cleared cap space. Wow.
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Do you know how hard it is to dump the salaries of three all-stars and get quality players and picks back in return? It’s tough. I mean look at the Knicks as a model for what can go wrong.
Thorn and Kiki got this from a old cap-strung team to a young flexible team with a lot of money coming off the books next year. Oh and a good amount of picks.
As for Ratner, yes he is a bad owner, but he does have some responsibility in this. If he fires Frank and gets a coach in there (Eddie Jordan) this team wins at least 3 or 4 games.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Bobbo – thanks, as always, for the support, and for reading. This post is about Bruce Ratner, not Rod Thorn. I’ve written plenty of pro-Brooklyn posts – your site even occasionally links to them. NAS is our soap box. If you don’t like what we have to say, you don’t have to read and you certainly don’t have to comment.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Ratner doens’t care about basketball the sooner he’s no longer owner the better.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 PM
It’s unfortunate when you think we could have had Lopez, Harris, RJ, and VC in a lineup. Thanks to Ratner we don’t.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:05 PM
To be fair one or two pics weren’t bad or at least one. Kristic looked like a real nice player before his injury I don’t remember any other good picks and they got him in the 20’s. Wait did we get him in 2002? hmmm I do remember Marcus Williams Antoine Wright etc. however
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 PM
I think the team could have made the playoffs this year with the addition of t will and expanded game of our rookie like cdr and brook. I suppose in the long run we’re better off but am I the only one who still wonders about RJ trade. He wasn’t that old and his contract while big not quite as large as kidd or carter. I guess in the long ruon n it depends Yi and who we pick up. I think Jefferson was young enough to stick around though even if Carter wasn’t
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 PM
In my opinion, arguing the Nets draft strategy from 02-07 is silly. Outside of the lottery, the draft is often a crap shoot, and there are ALWAYS stories of some guy dropping into the 20s, or the second round. How many people skipped on Sam Cassell or Nick Van Exel in the 1990s? Back when the Nets were perennial eastern contenders, Thorn used his mid-to-late first round picks on low risk high reward projects. Marcus Williams, was considered a steal when he dropped to the Nets. Yes, Antonie Wright was a disappointment, but keep in mind 16 other teams passed on Danny Granger (the player often cited as who the Nets should have drafted). This isn’t the Nets wasting lottery picks on Kwame Brown or Adam Morrison. When Thorn passes on a clear slam dunk in the draft, give me a call.
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:08 PM
Mark, I respect your work and think your great at sports blogging so I’m gonna ask you this. Do you think a lineup of Harris, Carter, lopez, and RJ would work out? That would take out any 2010 dreams we have but I don’t really see anyone coming to NJ. The RJ and VC trades were just terrible in my opinion. They didn’t even get any draft picks!
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 PM
I guess whe have to wait and see how well Lee and Yi do. One more thing I gotta say regarding the trades. I understand that Alston, Simmons, and Battie are just cap space but they have done absolutely nothing this season and in simmons’ case nothing last year either. They traded two centerpieces for 2 terrible ones in alston and simmons, one yet to put on a jersey for the nets in a game in battie and 2 wild cards in yi and lee. It pains me to watch this season guys
December 4th, 2009 at 4:50 AM
bball – I personally never saw a scenario where Carter and Jefferson were going to work together on the floor at the same time. it’s not even that they’re similar wings, but you had Jefferson, who best fit into a system like the Kidd-Martin-Kittles fast-break Nets and Carter came and tried to turn this team into a half-court team that played so-so defense. There was a clash. With that said, I understand where you’re going – obviously that line-up you mentioned would have won games, and probably made the playoffs as a 6 seed for a few years running – but if this organization ever found a legitimate PF replacement for Kenyon Martin back in the day, I don’t think we ever would have been in this mess.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Oh yeah Marcus Williams was a good pick at 21 worth the risk (if there was any) he was projected to go at 10 considering how hard it is to get anything better at 21
December 4th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
I pretty much lost my voice from all the booing last Wednesday; most of it was intended for Bruce Ratner. Imo he is definitely the main culprit for the state of the Nets. I also feel that Rod Thorn and Kiki have done a good job putting this team together with the conditions they’ve had to work with. Looking at the draft picks, I think the 2008 draft is an example of the type of job they have been doing (Brooke, Ryan Anderson late 1st round and CDR in the 2nd round). In regards to the trades, they were able to get young (fairly cheap) talent. Yes, they included players such as Rafer Alston and Bobby Simmons, but those are players in the last year of their contracts (just a few more months of seeing them in a Nets jersey at most – I can’t wait!).
Sorry to get side tracked, but back to Bruce Ratner. I understand that being an owner means the bottom line and making money is the goal at hand, but the condition he has the Nets in is a mess and a perfect recipe for failure.
There’s the idea that players try to leave all other distractions behind when it comes to game time. Whether its problems at the home front (as per Tiger – sorry had to get that one in there) or problems with management or coaches, when it’s time to play, it’s time to play and try to win. I think Bruce Ratner needs to get that mentality as well. While there are all the distractions going on with the team (move to Brooklyn or temporarily to Newark, the deal with the new owner), when it comes to the game, he needs to make sure that he concentrates on the game.
I think he needs to remember that he owns a sports team. Let me repeat that. HE OWNS A SPORTS TEAM! In other words, he makes money by the team winning games and selling tickets/merchandise/sponsorship/etc. I know that this isn’t a perfect model; there’s always the talk about how they still couldn’t constantly pack the Continental Airlines Arena even with 2 straight appearances to the NBA Finals. However, you can’t deny the correlation between wins and profit. Until ownership changes its mentality, the Nets will be in a sorry losing state and ownership will never profit (or at least not lose as much).
Btw – the other booing I did was for Bobby Simmons. I loved how he finally got into the game during the second half (not sure if he played in the first half, got to the game late, stupid Secaucus Junction busses to the Meadowlands stop running after a certain time), but first possession, he gets the ball in the paint (left hand side of the basket), dribbles away from the basket, probably realized “Oh, I’m like 5 feet away from the basket”, throws up a turnaround jumper and then AIRBALL!!!!…I think I pulled something from booing so hard. =)
December 9th, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Great piece.
So what do Nets fans do if you can’t land any of the big time free agents next season?
Punt?
Here’s my take…
http://sportschump.net/2009/12/09/the-new-jersey-nets-long-wait-for-free-agency/2429/