Nets Are Scorching

I remember the good ol’ days of the S. Carter line from Reebok, back when Jay-Z was just a legend who retired at the top of his game, before his comeback story, before his post-definitive music (which has thus fallen short), before marriage to an icon, before a baby…well, before the former New Jersey Nets.

Since 2003, the Nets have basically spent the last nine years waiting for change, and have received said change, made official on Monday. Jay-Z has spent the last nine years (disappointingly) in Michael Jordan’s Washington Wizards territory as an artist (while he’s dominating the business world simultaneously, as should be noted), but I digress…the Nets and Young Hov have a new shoe!

Per Hypebeast:

West Coast footwear brand Gourmet has unveiled a special sneaker for none other than Jay-Z himself, honoring the Nets’ historic move to Brooklyn. Dressed up in a sleek black colorway with the new Nets logo on the tongue, an all-too-familiar patterned fabric appears on the heel along with Jay-Z’s name. Key detailing comes in the form of tonal laces and expert stitching that gives way to a small “Gourmet” label just above the white soles. While there is no word on a release date, many speculate that the 22 L “Brooklyn Nets” is a one-off edition.

As a footwear expert and aficionado, my opinion of the Gourmet for Jay-Z 22 L “Brooklyn Nets” model is a positive one. Obviously, the new Nets logo sets the tone for how well the shoe can be engineered with its color scheme, and nothing says top-notch like black premium leathers and a stark white sole. As of standard footwear fashion trends, the shoe can be easily dressed up or dressed down casually, which speaks the kind of style that Shawn Carter himself conveys. The waxed laces are an added touch of character, as is the Achilles’ heel patch that uses multicolored embroidery to highlight Mr. Z’s rap name. Of course, adding to the celebration of many a New Yorker is the new Nets logo.

There’s not a lot to the shoe, but what’s there is good. Sounds familiar.

The Nets revealed their new branding strategy that coincides with their move from New Jersey to Brooklyn and most fans are ecstatic about it. For those that aren’t, we’ll assume they’re Jersey residents losing their home team, which is ironic since Brooklyn also had their home team (Brooklyn Dodgers) leave back in the late 1950s, although to a whole different coast. In time, I’m fairly certain these people will love the Brooklyn version of the Nets, particularly if the team eventually end up being consistent winners. We can only hope.

Our neighbors to the west aside, there has already been some beef about the Brooklyn-centric branding from Nets fans residing in non-BK boroughs in New York. It’s rare to have Nets fans nowadays, let alone outside of New Jersey or anyone not masochistic, so to actually hear people taking offense to the Brooklyn branding of the Nets is kind of surreal. Yet, I had a first dose of that umbrage recently on Twitter when someone from Queens, NY felt like they couldn’t root for the Nets anymore because it was basically all Brooklyn everything with the branding. It was an unexpected tweet because I didn’t know the Nets had that reach into my home borough… Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, Flushing, and Jamaica STAND UP!

Now, see what I did there? I did the typical shout-out that many people from around the way make and it’s all about having pride in where we come from. So, while I don’t throw up the Q (which actually seems impossible to me unless you want to look ridiculous), I understand people wanting to “represent.” To some degree, we’re all guilty of this. But, no one is more guilty or more effective or more passionate than Brooklyn is at it. At least in New York and this is coming from a boy from Queens, so save the hate.

Nowadays we see the root of “repping” your borough/city through hip-hop music and Biggie’s query for “Where Brooklyn at?” is as iconic a shout-out as any continued more recently with Santogold’s melodic statement of “Brooklyn we go hard” on a Jay-Z track. However, even old-timers will defend their Brooklyn origins and pass it down to their children, who will do the same in kind with their children and so on and so on. For these reasons, as much as others, the Nets are banking on this Brooklyn pride to take root with the team and grow, nurtured by the blatant Brooklyn-centric branding. It’s a big gamble with a big payoff.

So, while the other boroughs may feel slighted by the strategy, consider the hold that the New York Knicks have on the whole New York City area. Obviously, they’re the legacy and natural fallback for fandom to those in the metro area. If the Nets are going to win the area over and convert Knicks fans to Nets fans, other than winning (or rather in addition to), the team has to handle homebase – Brooklyn. Get BK to get your back and you’re good.

Personally, I’m old enough to remember the borough wars on wax back in the 1980s and in one of the bigger diss tracks during that time, KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions rhymes the following in The Bridge is Over:

Manhattan keeps on makin’ it, Brooklyn keeps on takin’ it…

Those lyrics describe the mission the Nets are on. While the Knicks are “makin’” it in Manhattan, the Nets are planning on “takin’” it with the “it” being the most passionate basketball fans in the world. And it all starts with this branding.

Position: SG/SF

Date of Birth: April 3, 1981

Hometown: Fresno, CA

Height: 6’5”

Weight: 218

Experience: 11 years

Drafted: 2000 1^st Round, 23rd by Utah

College: None

2011-12 salary: $2.5 million

These days in late November, it’s a little hard for some of the NBA’s finest fans to cope with the fact that we aren’t seeing those logoed uniforms zipping up and down the hardwood on TV and in the Prudential Center. Does it suck that the league hasn’t been cooperating to put out a brand-spanking-new season as we’d normally expect?

Short answer: yeah. It sucks. But a lot of things suck harder.

It’s hard to really be heartbroken to the point of devastation when gas is hard to buy, rent and mortgages are literally keeping people from take care of other responsibilities, and the cold weather is only going to make us as bitter as the air. Still, we can be thankful for what we have, and while the New Jersey Nets aren’t actually active, we can be thankful that they still exist in some form. Here are some good reasons to ponder thankfulness. Glasses up!

• Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov kept the team from being seriously considered for league contraction.
  It’s not that the NBA had gotten that far into thinking about the lockout back in 2008 and 2009, but ideas were already being thrown around about what franchises were more dissolvable than others. The Nets weren’t exactly setting the league on fire, which made Jay’s co-sign and Prokhorov’s bailout of the franchise virtually bulletproof. We don’t know how this lockout is going to turn out, but just be thankful this star power kept the team from being thrown about like a neglected rag doll.
• Deron Williams is actually optimistic about the Nets.
  It’s not news that Deron isn’t always bright and sunny-like (as we learned from his Utah days). That’s not to say Deron is an unhappy guy, but we just know that he’s fairly stoic about expressing his options (then again, Utah and New Jersey aren’t ideal settings when you think of signing a long-term contract). That he’s been talking upwards about the future of the team is a good sign. Let’s just appreciate this before he makes any other sudden movements.
• The lockout is keeping us from being reminded of the New Jersey’s mediocre talent.
  Jordan Farmar has been my personal disappointment for the past three years. Travis Outlaw is another chief offender (though I feel he was overvalued and misused in the process). I’m not exactly salivating over Brook Lopez these days, either. In a sense, the blessing of the lockout is that fans of the Nets can just focus on getting the team back out and not put too much attention on the fact that the team is crowded with relative disappointments up and down the roster.
• Kris Humphries’ offseason foray into celebrity marriage makes the Nets a little more interesting.
  Honestly, I’ve always felt that Kris was a worthy NBA player that seemed to not get the best fits early on in his career. I was happy when he finally arrived in New Jersey and started getting minutes and playing like I felt he was capable. Though he was under the radar, he’s always been talented. Now he’s famous, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll blossom even further as a player in the process, or whether he’ll wither in the face of the media keeping a post-Kardashian eye on his mug.
• Hope.
  Regardless of Prokhorov’s stature as a playboy and savvy billionaire, the Nets’ hope is based on their aura as a business and less so about their current roster. It’s because of their impending move to Brooklyn in New York City that they have the appeal of an up-and-coming Fortune 500 business. I’ll take whatever I can get, regardless of the cache.

Firstly: after sixteen hours of NBA Lockout mediation yesterday ended after 2 A.M., the sides split with a universal no-comment and a promise of meeting again this morning. After taking days off between 4-7 hour meetings, that’s only a good sign. Long live George Cohen forcing these guys to get things done!

Deron Williams made his “official” Turkish debut a few days ago, scoring 11 points and dishing out 5 assists in a 23-minute stint as Besiktas blew out Bandirma, 107-69. Lot of empty seats in that picture.

Trouble in paradise:Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian are close to a split.

NBARank has come to a close, and ESPN put together an interesting “fact sheet” about each team. As it turns out, the Nets have the lowest average player ranking among their top 10 of any NBA team (229.6, 11 spots behind 29th-ranked Charlotte), even with Deron at 9.

A nice profile of Jordan Farmar over in Israel.

Discussed the benefits of Andrew Bynum vs. Brook Lopez on Twitter today with some folks. I think Bynum is, if healthy, a top-2 center in the NBA and legitimately could be a top-10 player. But his health is an enormous “if.” Playoffs included, he’s played in 260 of a possible 406 games these past four seasons; Brook’s started his career with 246 consecutive games (239 consecutive starts). I just can’t think of many 7-footers that had surgery on both knees before 25 that went on to have long and productive careers. The only guy off the top of my head is Amare Stoudemire, and Bynum puts at least 45 more pounds of pressure on his knees than Amare.

Shaq is re-visiting his dream of owning an NBA franchise in Newark. Given how Newark performed this past year with only one other franchise in the market, it doesn’t seem likely.

Speaking of ownership, if Shaq comes through on that dream he’ll only be the third-best rapper among ownership ranks, behind Jay-Z (#1, of course) and new Philadelphia 76ers part owner, Will Smith. Additionally, E-Online is trying to stoke the flames of rivalry between the teams, specifically Will and Jigga. Maybe some fun will happen on the court, but on the mic it’s no competition.

According to a source from the Brooklyn Paper, Jay-Z will kick off the Barclays Center in style, hosting the first concert (and event) in Barclays Center history on opening night in 2012.

The announcement is at 10 AM today, and will stream live online at the Barclays Center website as well as NJNets.com. You’ll need to sign up with the sites for the exclusive access.

Two must-have songs (warning: NSFW language, but I’m sure you knew that already):

And of course, “Yeah, I’m bout that Brooklyn/now I’m down in Tribeca/right next to DeNiro/but I’ll be hood forever…”

The article also hints that there are more announcements — including a name change. Doubtful. That would not only be a major announcement, but also kind of silly — along with registering BrooklynNets.com, all signs indicate that they’re sticking with the Nets name. My guess is that they’ll bring out new uniform designs and push the Barclays Center as the future of Brooklyn.

Still, your guess is as good as mine. We’ll find out tomorrow at 10.

Nets minority owner Jay-Z is facing a bit of scrutiny after being caught congratulating University of Kentucky players in the locker room following their NCAA Tournament victory at the Prudential Center last week:

The hip-hop mogul’s visit was documented in photos and video showing him congratulating players in the Kentucky locker room, which happened to have been occupied by two potential lottery picks — Brandon Knight and Terrance Jones. As noted here, this offense would seem to be comparable to Celtics GM Danny Ainge sitting with Kevin Durant’s mother during the 2007 Big 12 tournament. Ainge was fined $30,000, a slap on the wrist in exchange for the opportunity to schmooze a top prospect’s mom. But given that standard, Jay-Z should be docked $30K for each college player who was in the locker room.

Of course the problem here is Jay-Z is connected to Kentucky coach John Calipari through the marketing company Worldwide Wes (the same company which was supposed to help Jay-Z lure LeBron, ‘Melo, etc to the Nets). The way I see it, after his three years in New Jersey, I think anyone from the Nets organization caught fraternizing with Calipari should be shot out of a canon, but then again, I’m just bitter about Calipari.

The usual “winners” and “losers” of the trade deadline list are out, and like the Oscar’s and Grammy’s, these awards really don’t mean anything, but they’re fun to talk about anyway.

Mostly, the pundits think the Nets hit a home run (I agree) with Deron Williams. CBS Sports dubbed them *the* winner from the Atlantic Division:

Nobody else made a bigger leap into relevancy that the Nets did, and that’s worthy of the winner title.

The Sporting News brings up the Nets fortunes versus the Knicks:

The Nets not only improved their immediate future, but they continued pushing against the Knicks’ dominance of the New York area while establishing a pretty good rivalry with their cross-river foes.

On the flip side, Yahoo’s Marc Spears thinks Deron Williams is walking away from the deadline a “loser” and he also calls out Nets minority owner Jay-Z in a line I can’t necessarily disagree with:

Once Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets, he thought it would be important to get Jay-Z, one of the franchise’s minority owners, more involved in the recruitment of free agents. Sources said Jay-Z even received an increase in his ownership stake.

Yet Jay-Z failed to deliver LeBron James last summer and couldn’t get Anthony to commit to a contract extension after meeting with him during All-Star weekend.

I understand that Jay-Z has every right to own a minority stake in the Nets and that bringing a team to Brooklyn must be a cool idea for him, but I hope this ‘Melo stuff is the last we’ve heard of him as some kind of salesman for this team. He may be the most overrated minority owner in sports if that’s possible.