Ted Leonsis Approves This Message
May 20, 2010 DeMarcus Cousins, Draft, Draft Lottery, Evan Turner, John Wall, Just For Fun, Nets vs. Wizards, Positivity, Sillyness, Truehoop Network
I recently happened upon Washington Wizards owner, Ted Leonsis’ personal blog in a roundabout way after reading TrueHoop’s Wednesday Bullets. In any case, he blogged about luck, deserving the first pick, and thanked Irene Pollin for being at the NBA Lottery Draft amongst other things. From what I’ve read, Leonsis seems like a genuinely happy and regular kind of guy who happens to have a ton of money. In any case, I have to say, I now like the dude. One reason being is he actually approved the above comment when he really didn’t have to. Yes, his comments do require moderation. In any case, thanks for approving the comment, Ted… you’re good people. You can check out the blog entry itself here.
NAS Note to Celtics and their fans
Feb 27, 2010 Just For Fun
After being out of pocket all day, finally got to catch up with the game. Sebastian will have a more in-depth look tomorrow, but given how little Nets fans have had to celebrate this season, I have this simple message to the Celtics and the wonderful fans of Boston:
The Nets Could Use Mike Seaver’s Charm
Nov 25, 2009 Just For Fun, Losing Streak
Hat tip to Ball Don’t Lie. Finally, the Nets give us something to laugh about.
For Nets Tix Promotions, Turn to the Tube
Nov 20, 2009 Brett Yormark, Just For Fun
In an ongoing trend since before the season started, the Nets made national headlines for their most recent “Ten is Enough” marketing effort, where the team sold $10 seats to Tuesday night’s game against the Pacers as the Nets were riding an 0-10 start to their season. The Nets were able to sell a few extra tickets with the ploy, but the team is still winless. So now what can they do to market tickets?
That’s where Nets Are Scorching comes to the rescue. Taking a cue from “Ten is Enough,” NAS has created some new marketing ploys that are adapted from the names of some of our favorite television shows of the 70s and 80s. Brett Yormark, you’re welcome to use any of these, free of charge. Just make sure you save us some $10 seats.
Different Strokes for Different Folks – Acknowledging the Nets shooting woes, the team looks to get some fresh shooters into the fold. The first 5,000 fans who come to the Izod Center on game day get a chance to take a halfcourt shot. First one who sinks it, gets to show off their stroke in Nets uniform on a 10-day contract.
Experience “Growing Pains” at the Izod – Most of us were big fans of Terrence Williams when the Nets drafted him earlier this year, but unfortunately, he’s still got some growing to do as a player. Fans in attendance get something free from the concession stand every time TWill turns the ball over. Fans get a special bonus if Marv Albert refers to any of TWill’s mistakes as a “boner” of a move.
Fill Our House, See Our “Full House” – Buy a ticket to the game, and see where all talented Nets are – by getting a tour of the tranier’s room where Devin Harris, Courtney Lee and others are treated and bandaged up. Then afterwards, you can join them on the sidelines and watch whoever’s left on the team play a basketball game.
“Perfect Strangers” See the Nets – Mikhail Prokhorov can easily play the role of Balki Bartokomous, while Bruce Ratner dons a curly wig and plays Cousin Larry. At halftime, they’ll do the “Dance of Joy.” This could also double as the “Who’s the Boss” promotion, as long as Bruce Ratner ditches the curly hair for a blonde wig.
Three’s Company – Buy tickets to three Nets games, and a Nets player of your choosing takes you out to lunch, plays hoops with you, gives you a massage and does your laundry. Wait, I think the Nets are already doing this…
Cheer with Cheers – Show up at the Izod with a cast member of Cheers, and see the game for free (I mean seriously, what’s Shelly Long doing these days anyway?). Get free season tickets if you can pull this off when the Boston Celtics are in town.
- For another writers take on the Nets marketing efforts, read CNBC Darren Rovell.
Introducing the Nets Misery Index
Nov 10, 2009 2009-2010 Regular Season, Just For Fun
The Nets are now officially off to their worst start in franchise history, which says a lot considering the nefarious history of this organization. However, even with the 0-7 start and half of the roster injured – including having the first player in NBA history to be diagnosed with the “Swine Flu,” I think it’s always good to put things in proper context. So, with that in mind, I have developed the “Nets Misery Index.” I’m going to take a look at some other miserable seasons in Nets history and rate each one of a scale of one to five Dwayne Schintziuses – one equaling not so miserable, and five equaling misery comparable to building your roster around Dwayne Schintzius. For each season we’ll look at three factors: expectations for the team, overall performance and long-term impact on the franchise. The caveat here is I’m only looking at seasons that I’ve personally experienced as a fan. We’ll then see how the start and ultimate outlook for the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets compares on the Misery Index.
Check out the misery after the jump.
Starbury Wants to be a Brooklyn Net
Oct 7, 2009 Brooklyn, Just For Fun
I was originally going to throw this up in tonight’s link dump, but I’m so amused, I thought it warranted its own mini-post.
So, apparently the currently unemployed Stephon Marbury, fresh from playing himself out of Boston last season, is using Twitter to lobby for a job with the “Brooklyn Nets” (hat tip NetsDaily for pointing out the tweet).
In a tweet from yesterday, Marbury writes, “Rod Thorn is my man. I want to play for the BROOKLYN NETS. I said it.”
For those who don’t remember their Nets history, Thorn traded Marbury before the 2001-02 season for Jason Kidd, changing the Nets from bottom-feeding laughingstocks into back-to-back Eastern Conference champions.
Marbury’s desire for Brooklyn is logical. He was born in Brooklyn and attended Abraham Lincoln High School there as well. Of course, even if the Nets break ground on the Barclays Arena by the end of the year, they are still a few years away from playing in Brooklyn either – meaning Marbury will be in his mid-30s at that point. And if his NBA employment status remains as it is now, he’ll also have been out of basketball for a few years by that point. Still, in a summer where J.R. Rider and Arvydas Sabonis have been linked to the Nets, I guess this is not the strangest piece of free agent gossip we’ve had this off-season, even if it originated from the player himself.
On the plus side, people who don’t believe the cache of Brooklyn won’t draw in NBA free agents, look no further than this tweet.
Second Helping: How CDR Compares
Sep 28, 2009 Chris Douglas-Roberts, Just For Fun
There seems to be a certain amount of buzz surrounding what kind of season Chris Douglas-Roberts could put together this year, with analysts like ESPN’s John Hollinger speculating he could become a 6th man scoring option for the Nets. This kind of attention is especially noteworthy when you consider that CDR was a second-round draft pick for Nets. The Nets have not historically reaped a lot of quality from their second-rounders. Sure, guys like Hassan Adams had a couple of good games their rookie season, but like Adams, many of them lasted only a year or two in the league, or never even made it onto the court in their NBA careers. So NetsAreScorching decided to look back at some of the Nets best second-rounders since the lottery era. By looking at this list, it appears that CDR could climb the ranks fairly quickly if he puts together a season like Hollinger predicts.
#5 Evan Eschmeyer – 2nd Round, 34th Overall, 1999
The 6’11” Center out of Northwestern University lasted only four seasons in the NBA, two of which were with the Nets before finishing his career in Dallas. He eventually retired before the 2004 season because of persistent knee troubles. He did start 55 games for the Nets in his two seasons in New Jersey, including 51 starts in 2000-01, though that also coincided with two of the worst seasons in recent memory for the team. In his second season, he did average a career high 3.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in 18 minutes of play. He had a defensive rebounding percentage of 20.5. The closest he came to a double-double in a Nets uniform was his last game on April 17, 2001, when he scored 12 points and grabbed 9 boards.
Looking At Prokhorov’s Russian Team
Sep 24, 2009 Just For Fun, Mikhail Prokhorov, Roster
Mikhail Prokhorov will probably be bringing in his own Front Office people. We know that. With that being said, I thought it would be interesting/fun to look at his Russian team’s (CSKA Moscow) roster.
Before we get to the actual roster, we should note that his teams were good. I mean real good. Just look at the results. They have won their Russian League titles every year since 2002-2003, plus they have been in the Euroleague final the final four years…winning it two out of those four years.
So, back to the roster. Here was their roster for the 2008-2009 Euroleague:
There are a lot of familiar names on the roster huh? There are a number of former-NBA players and a few big name college guys. So what does this mean? Well for one he is (or his people) are going to be willing to throw around a lot of cash for some big names (let’s face it, Prokhorov probably paid a ton of money – for Russian League basketball – for these guys).
Also note the coach…word is that Prokhorov is enamored with him.
Luring LeBron
Sep 18, 2009 Just For Fun, LeBron James
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Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” made headlines this week when he jokingly attempted to bribe free-agent-to-be LeBron James to come to the New York Knicks by offering him a brown bag filled with grub from the famous Manhattan burger-stand Shake Shack. As someone who has frequented Shake Shack at both the Madison Square Park and Citi Field locations, let me just speak for Nets fans everywhere that we can not only offer LeBron a better supporting cast of young talent than the Knicks, but also some better food and fun if he comes to New Jersey, or potentially, Brooklyn. Seriously, why would someone try to lure the greatest basketball player on the planet to their team by selling them on a burger stand where even on a slow day, you’re waiting a good hour just to get a tiny little burger and a shake. Instead, let me try to tempt you with some of these indulgences:
From New Jersey:
- A Hot Dog From Rutts: You like hot dogs LeBron? Do you like deep fried food? Well, at this Clifton eatery you can get a hot dog that’s dropped in a vat of hot oil and deep fried until the casing bursts and crinkles. Top it off with some of Rutt’s spicy-sweet relish.
- A Pork Roll and Egg Sandwich from Mastoris: I don’t know which is better – a good old fashioned pork roll (aka taylor ham) and egg sandwich that’s a Jersey staple or going to this Bordentown diner for their gigantic size version of the sandwich. I mean seriously, it’s the size of a basketball. Everyone says you’re built like a football player LeBron. With a sandwich like that you can eat like one too (and if you can polish of three of them you could eat like Michael Phelps).
- A Deep Fried Calzone from Pizza Town: You might have heard that Jersey has some pretty good Italian food. In fact, you might have seen some show on cable where a bunch of Italian guys went to pork stores to get cappy ham and vinegar peppers on a hero. Well, if you go to Pizza Town in Elmwood Park, you can get one of there ham calzones deep fried. Do they serve calzones in Ohio? Either way, prepare to get your mind blown.
- Sonic: So if you end up going to New York to play on the Knicks and eat Shake Shack, you’re going to notice a lot of commercials for Sonic. They’re going to entice you with their cherry limeades and tater tots and you’re going to be waiting for your burgert in Madison Square Park for 45 minutes and you’re going to be like, “I should just go to Sonic. They’re on TV all the time.” Here’s the problem, there are no Sonics in New York. Seriously. They just like to buy ad time there. Hasbrouck Heights, NJ on the other hand. Sonic.
From Brooklyn:
- A Steak from Peter Lugers: Simply put, it’s the best steakhouse in the area. While the wait staff at this world-famous steakhouse is known for being terse, I gurantee they’ll treat King James with the royalty he deserves. And seriously, why get a hamburger when you can get a giant porterhouse steak for four.
- Pizza at Grimaldi’s: In a city filled with amazing pizza (and Jersey is great too!), one of the region’s most famous is right next door to the Brooklyn Bridge. This isn’t the Domino’s you’re probably used to in Ohio, LeBron. This is a perfectly baked crust with a nice bit of char to get that real coal oven flavor. There’s also a great cheese to sauce ratio.
- Nathan’s Famous: In your travels, you’ve probably seen a number of small Nathan’s franchises. In fact, Penn Station next to MSG probably has about a dozen of them. But why get the red-headed stepchild of an American classic? You and Brook Lopez can go down to Coney Island. Brook can ride the Cyclone a dozen or so times until he gets sick, while you can hit the original Nathan’s for one of their perfect hot dogs.
- Beer and video games at Barcade: Speaking of bonding experiences with Brook Lopez, you could really make his day if you take the L train over to Lorimer Street to hang out at Barcade. There, you will find a ton of beer on tap plus dozens of old school arcade games from yesteryear like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert and more. Sure, when you’re hanging out in your crib in Manhattan you could probably pop in Halo on your Xbox, but why do that when you can hit a nice, dank bar in Brooklyn, grab a pint of Dogfish Head, and play the original Punch Out before Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream were ever created.
Come See the Nets … And Get Your Kobe Jersey!
Aug 13, 2009 2009-2010 Regular Season, Just For Fun
The Nets have never been the easiest sports franchise to root for, but it’s never good when the team themselves admits to it.
The Nets are offering fans who buy tickets to one of their 10-game plans, five reversible NBA jerseys featuring 10 different players. So hey, when the Nets are playing the Cavs on January 2, we can all convince Lebron to sign with us, the greatest fans on earth, by taking our Devin Harris jersey and reversing it to a Lebron jersey. Because that’s what true fans do … switch sides when they’re team is stinking up the place. Later in the season, I hear they might do a brown shopping bag promotion so the few thousand fans who are still showing up to games can hide their faces in case they’re shown on TV.
I remember when I first started following the Nets in the SportsChannel days, I would seethe when Spencer Ross and Bill Raferty would promote upcoming games by saying “come see Michael Jordan and the Bulls” or “Clyde Drexler and the Trailblazers.” Because going to see Drazen Petovic and Sam Bowie wasn’t enough.
I guess the bright side of this jersey promotion is they haven’t paired any Nets with an Eddy Curry Knicks jersey.
Posted by Mark Ginocchio