So apparently some guy in L.A. had a MONSTER dunk against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday that set the internet and twitter ablaze with excitement. You may have seen it.
As a result of all the buzz, most of Tuesday I found myself nostalgically talking about and watching past facials of old.
Which led me to thinking: what are the greatest Nets in-game dunks of all-time? I reached out to the fellow Nets Are Scorching writers and our readership and got back some great responses (thanks to all those who submitted!) and compiled this list. Enjoy.
(Note: I opted against limiting these or giving them any kind ranking. So these are in no particular order. Just go through and enjoy all the rim-rattling dunking goodness.)
Vince Carter’s Mourning Rise:
First of all, Vince is one of the greatest throw down artists of all-time, so you will see him featured a lot in this. Love everything about this dunk. Love that it was on Alonzo Mourning. Love RJ’s fist pump afterwards. Love that he seemingly got higher after he made contact with Mourning. Love that the play started with VC going behind the back. Love it all.
To say that Julius Erving was before my time is a pretty significant understatement. Julius was born in early 1950. He became a professional basketball player in 1971. I was born in late 1983. Julius retired in 1987. I didn’t even think of basketball until 1994. The closest I had gotten to Dr. J was almost buying his Converse All-Star Dr. J 2000 shoes in the late ‘90s.
To be perfectly honest, my mom was the first person to let me know who Dr. J was, before I even had basketball on my agenda. I had absolutely no idea. She described him as one would a pop icon. And then other family members, who grew up in the ‘70s, they told me about him. They spoke as if he were a great prophet or a disciple of Christ. I couldn’t really fathom it. “He was like Michael Jordan!”, they told me. That didn’t compute. You know why? Because I saw Michael Jordan… and NOBODY was better than him, I thought (and still think).
But I wasn’t there.
So…when given the honorable task to compose a piece on The Doctor, I sought out the four men I knew would have the vision that I lacked. I sought a teacher, an artist and colleague, I sought a coach, and I sought a basketball playing legend. The four men — Vince Carter, Michael Tillery, Jayson Gee, and Charles Oakley — had what I needed, so instead of me trying to do it all on my own, I let these guys talk to me and give me the knowledge I lacked. Read more…
I get that Vince Carter is super fun to make fun of. It’s easy. Vince Carter is the airline food of NBA humor. Making fun of him — for anything — is like shooting fish in a barrel. (Or letting VC shoot you out of a game, AMIRITE!?) Between his acidic departure from Toronto and the collective perception that he never fulfilled his vast potential, you’re bound to construct an easy pun and get a laugh out of using Vince Carter as the lightning rod for everything that’s wrong with basketball.
But that’s the problem — they’re not about him anymore. At some point, Vince Carter’s story stopped being about Vince Carter.
I could talk about Rod Thorn’s charisma, the slight twang in his accent, how he always came off as an affable, upstanding man. I could talk about how Thorn arguably was the fairest Executive VP of Player Operations the league has ever seen, curtailing the violent play of the 80s and 90s as he ruled with a calm iron fist. I could talk about how his NBA playing career influenced his future in front office politics.
But those things are only a modicum of your overall impact. Truthfully, your record defines your greatness. And Rod Thorn’s front office record with the Nets is nothing short of phenomenal.
February 19, 2008 represented a changing of the guard in New Jersey. Fed up with the Nets franchise’s inability to compete, Jason Kidd demanded a trade. Dallas owner Mark Cuban wanted Kidd back and was willing to make a decent value deal for him. Enter one of the biggest deals in Nets history, involving eight players, two draft picks, and $3 million in cash considerations — yet none of it really mattered outside of the two key pieces: Jason Kidd and Devin Harris.
That the Nets were able to get someone — anyone — for a guy who had mentally checked out of the franchise was a godsend. Too often these deals end up like salary dumps, with no talent going the other way.
Just look at how the Nets acquired Vince Carter. And then dealt Vince Carter.
But Devin Harris? Devin Harris was somebody. No one really knew what yet — he’d been hidden in Dallas’s system for the first four years of his career, and even as a starter hadn’t fully reached his potential. He was efficient, but with limited impact.
Joining the Nets gave him free rein of the offense, and finally allowed his career to take that next step. New Jersey gave Harris the opportunity to become… whatever it was Harris was supposed to become.
And what was that? I’d call Harris a trickster, a player who maximized his efficiency in unorthodox ways. In 2008-09, Harris walked a tightrope between poor shooting and efficient scoring as well as anyone. As he began to use more possessions than ever, he used his exceptional ability to draw contact and get to the free throw line at an unprecedented rate.
In 2007-08, Harris averaged 4.7 free throw attempts per game – a career high at that point. In 08-09? 8.8 attempts per game. Despite this new offensive responsibility plummeting his shooting percentages, Harris’s ability to adjust his game and become a scorer-distributor-foul magnet cemented him as one of the most valuable point guards in the league.
The team may have only won 34 games, but given the Nets roster — composed of Harris, a 32-year-old Vince Carter, a rookie Brook Lopez, and no one else — it was a surprise they even made it that far. They have Harris to thank for it.
(In case you forgot how bad that team was: the team’s fourth-best player was Keyon Dooling. Keyon Dooling! Keyon Dooling has started 84 games and has never averaged 10 points per game in his career. I like Keyon Dooling and he’s the ultimate in NBA fashion, but if he’s your seventh-best player, you’ve got problems.)
The year after is when it began to turn sour: without Carter in the backcourt to alleviate the offense, Harris began to fall off the tightrope. His free throw attempts and shooting both declined, he began drifting on defense, and his body struggled with the abuse withstood attacking the basket. Without anyone other than Brook Lopez to rely on for offense, the perfect storm reared its ugly head and the Nets barely missed historical infamy. After that season, the writing was on the wall.
When we look back on the Nets franchise 10, 15, 20 years from now, I’m not sure Harris will be known for much more than being a stopgap between the Jason Kidd era and the Deron Williams era (whether it’s one strike-shortened year or beyond). The lineage is as direct as it gets — the Nets traded Kidd for Harris, rode the Blur for a few seasons, then flipped him for D-Will. Whether it’s his fault or not, in 212 games over four seasons with Harris at the helm, the Nets made the playoffs zero times and recorded an abysmal 67-145 record. That kind of record leaves a bad memory.
But I’ll also remember his first game in New Jersey, when he came off the bench, hit his first six shots, led a 20-5 run, dunked on Andrew Bogut, and scored 20 points in 21 minutes as he led the Nets to victory. I’ll remember him dropping 41-13 on Dallas and Kidd as “THANK YOU CU-BAN!” rained from the rafters. I’ll remember him getting to the line 24 times against Detroit when no one else could score. I’ll remember him scoring 47 in a huge comeback victory against Phoenix, hitting all 17 of his free throws. I’ll remember his 31-point outburst against the Knicks in The Garden, and the time he outscored Derrick Rose 42-9 to keep the Nets in the playoff hunt. All in victories.
I’ll remember how Harris darted in and out of the lane, always looking to score, but also looking to create. I’ll remember his insane end-to-end speed as well as his ability to change direction in an instant. I’ll remember how quickly everything changed post-Kidd for this franchise, and even though I was wrong in this last one, I’ll remember feeling that the Nets had found a guy that could make us forget about Jason Kidd.
And, of course, I will always, always, always remember this.
In the spirit of Mark’s look at the franchise’s top 5 point guards of all time, in this edition of Nets Yearbook I’ll take a look at the top 5 shooting guards.
5. Otis Birdsong
Regular season (per-game numbers in parenthesis): 375 G, 317 GS, 5,968 points (15.9), 941 rebounds (2.5), 1,361 assists (3.6), 427 steals (1.1), .499 FG%, .267 3P%, .591 FT%, 14.5 PER
A former #2 overall pick, the Nets acquired Birdsong in 1981 in a sign-and-trade, and he more or less held down the starting position until the Nets waived him in 1988. Birdsong called the three certainties in life “death, taxes, and my jump shot,” and he wasn’t wrong – Birdsong shot over 50% in four of his seven seasons in New Jersey, leading the Nets in scoring twice despite suffering a fractured pelvis, broken shooting hand, and multiple injuries to his right knee and leg.
Fun fact: When the Nets traded for Birdsong In 1981, he became the first guard in NBA history to earn $1 million in a season.
Playoffs: 54 G, 664 points (12.3), 195 rebounds (3.6), 116 assists (2.1), 87 steals (1.6), 52 turnovers (0.96), .424 FG%, .337 3P%, .742 FT%, 15.4 PER
A lifelong Net – I’m not counting his 11-game stint with the Clippers in his final season – Kittles made his mark as an excellent spot-up shooter and defender. Kittles is one of the rare players who amassed more steals than turnovers in every season of his career, a testament to his excellent hands on defense as well as his career-long lack of ball-handling duties. His game didn’t have many dimensions, but the eerily consistent Kittles played a key role in the Nets semi-dynasty from 2001-2003. Read more…
The 2008-09 season was an era of great transition for the New Jersey Nets, as they moved away from being a perennial playoff contender into a rebuilding team that was more focused on stockpiling assets like younger/cheaper players, draft picks, and veteran contracts that were set to expire before the much bally-hooed “summer of LeBron” in 2010. Right before the 2008 NBA Draft, the Nets traded fan favorite Richard Jefferson for the underachieving Chinese import Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. After this deal, only Vince Carter remained as part of the vaunted “big three” of VC, Jefferson and Kidd.
It also is a personal favorite season of me in an odd way. The play of Devin Harris and Brook Lopez gave me hope that despite what the pundits were saying, the Nets were well set headed into 2009-10 and beyond. Guess it goes to show how little I actually know about basketball!
Anyway, the Nets had a strong draft, grabbing Lopez and PF Ryan Anderson in the first round, and Chris Douglas-Roberts in the second. During free agency, the traded cash considerations for veteran PG Keyon Dooling to back-up Devin Harris, who was acquired at the trade deadline the season before in the Jason Kidd blockbuster.
With their young nucleus of Harris and Lopez, and the veteran leadership of VC, the Nets were a surprise team through the season’s first three months, hovering around the .500 until the middle of January. Harris’ play in the first-half of the season (21.8 points, 6.5 assists) made the Kidd-trade look like a lop-sided affair in the Nets favor, while Carter seemed to embrace his veteran leadership role, hitting numerous game-winning shots and reportedly evolving as a locker room leader. Harris was selected to his first all-star game.
But a five-game losing streak in the middle of February, pushed the Nets towards the back of the pack, and injuries started to mount, most notably to Harris and Yi. A second five-game losing streak in March sealed the team’s fate, putting them at 30-44. They finished the season 4-4 and stood in 9th place in the Eastern Conference with a 34-48 record; making it the second consecutive year the team didn’t make the playoffs.
