“We were, in a sense, putting the Nets in the witness-protection program,” Spoelstra said last week. “In the NBA, the Nets had never achieved anything of worth, and the Nets – I still believe is sort of a crummy name. It would be like the Yankees being named the New York ‘Second Bases.’”
Not everyone was thrilled with the idea – including Gov. Christie Whitman.
“She called me personally and said, ‘We’ve been trying to convince people for 20 years that that swamp is a meadow by calling it Meadowlands, and now you’re naming your team Swamp Dragons?” Spoelstra said.
Still, the change was approved by each member of the ‘Secaucus Seven,’ the Nets’ ownership group at the time – a minor miracle, considering they seldom agreed on anything. Then it was approved by the executive committee of the NBA’s board of governors, after which the league spent more than $500,000 to trademark the name in hundreds of countries.
All it needed now was the approval of the NBA’s 27 owners.
“Of the 27 votes, 26 of them came back with a ‘yes,’” Spoelstra said. “And one came back with a ‘no.’ The problem was, that one vote was the New Jersey Nets.”
Huh? The seven owners used to rotate who would vote on such matters, and this was David Gerstein’s turn to vote.
“He got cold feet,” Spoelstra said. “I told David Stern, ‘We still have a majority.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but the one [expletive] guy that didn’t vote for it is your owner.’”
More: Andy Vasquez, The Record — Nets’ middling-if-not-colorful history
10 million imaginary points to the best photoshop of a potential “New Jersey Swamp Dragons” logo.
It’s hardly a secret that the newspaper industry is dying, slowly getting replaced by a medium that can support videos of dining dogs and moving pictures of large teenagers in pink shirts thanking their lord and savior for a three-point shot as pixelated waffles rain in the foreground.
But today, the Star-Ledger’s given me a reason to act like the man above, with an honorary section of the sports section dedicated to the history of the New Jersey Nets.
They’ve got your “best” lists, ranging from top five highest-impact players to five biggest drug suspensions. They’ve got your Dave D’Alessandro ripping the Nets for 35 years of indifference article. They postulate on Dr. J, Chocolate Thunder, and Draz. They’ve got a great personal piece on Buck.
So, if you’re interested, swing by your nearest hollowed-out cave where they keep the newspapers and pick up a Star-Ledger.
The Nets announced today that Armon Johnson, signed to a ten-day contract earlier this month, will remain with the team through the remainder of the season. The remainder of the season = three games.
In short bursts, Johnson has shown the ability to get into the lane and create for others, as well as a nice pull-up floater. He’s made 10 of his 17 shots in 49 minutes, averaging 4.4 points per game, and in that small sample size the Nets are +.7 with him on the floor. In signing him through the season, the Nets also retain his Bird rights.
Green did not have a job in the fall of 2009. He contemplated going to college and starting a career outside of basketball. He instead signed with Russia’s PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban.
The team played in small, cold gyms. They practiced twice a day. Green underwent a severe culture shock. “I’ve never been to a whole country and not seen one black person,” Green said. “Just never seen it. And then when you’re black, they look at you crazy because they’ve never seen it either. You’re just as shocked as they are. A lot of times, people come touch you like, ‘What is this?’ They’ll touch you and look at your skin to see if it’s paint. I’m not playing. All Russia is not like that. You’ve got your big cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg. Some cities understand that there are black people. They do exist. But the smaller cities, the little villages, they’ve never seen it.”
That is the setting where Green started learning the game instead of just playing it.
More: Jonathan Abrams, Refound Youth — Gerald Green’s improbable return to the NBA
Do yourself a favor and read all of this. Especially the part where Billy King mixes up agent phone numbers. But the rest of it, too.
The Nets are finally #1 at something!
Today, Complex Magazine listed their ranking of the 25 worst players in the NBA, and sure enough, atop the list is one New Jersey Nets center Johan Petro.
Here’s what Complex had to say about Simple:
It’s a struggle just to watch Johan Petro play. If you are 7-feet tall, you have no excuse to not be good at basketball. The Nets signed this man to a 3-year, 10 million dollar deal. Yet another addition to this list. #top50worstcontractsondeck
The 7-foot Petro is shooting 40.9% on the season, but averages a career-low 4.8 fouls per 36 minutes. So there’s that.
One other Nets player makes the list — Shelden Williams, at #13 — but I think that’s a bit unfair for the landlord. He’s hardly Dwight Howard, but he’s no Andris Biedrins, who’s nowhere to be found on the list. Or what about teammate DeShawn Stevenson? At least Petro and Shelden crack double digits in PER; Stevenson is shooting 28.1% from the field and has a player efficiency rating of 4.3. Four point three.
Anyway, congrats to the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets for having just two players on this list.
“Here, definitely with the Nets,” Green said when asked for his preference. “I have a strong feeling I’m going to be with the Nets. I don’t feel like I’m going to be anywhere else. I know I’m not getting any feedback now from anybody. I can’t. Can’t talk to anybody. So I have a strong feeling about here. They want me here I want to be here. It’s not like I have to weigh my options. I really don’t have any options.”
He would even take less money to stay.
“Most definitely I would,” Green said without pause. “I’m about loyalty and this team was the first team to pick me up for the year. They gave me an opportunity. They gave me a shot. Look what they’re doing. Our record doesn’t speak for itself. We’re a lot better team than our record says.
“I strongly feel that and everybody on this team does too. So I think this season was a season where we can kind of see where we’re at and I would love to be a part of what’s going on in the future.”
More: Fred Kerber, New York Post — Green says he’d give Nets hometown discount
These sound like the words of someone you’ll see in a Brooklyn Nets uniform next season.
