When the Brooklyn Nets acquired Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry last summer, Mikhail Prokhorov said, “Today, the basketball gods smiled on the Nets.” Neither Garnett, Pierce nor Prokhorov was smiling after the Miami Heat eliminated Brooklyn in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games. “The only reason we came to Brooklyn was to win another ring,” Garnett said. In retrospect, Brooklyn took a gamble that didn’t pay off. The Nets gave up a king’s ransom to acquire Garnett and Pierce to
Sprung: Purpose of Pierce, Garnett in question after Nets’ Game 5 loss
Why did the Nets acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from Boston last offseason, mortgaging key future assets to do so? To help win a championship? To be on the floor in important moments in the playoffs, where their championship experience and leadership would prove invaluable to a team that previously had no players with real, legitimate postseason success? In the most important moments in the Brooklyn Nets’ season, the final minutes of the team’s Game 5 loss in Toronto, Pierce and
The NBA Remembers Dr. Jack Ramsay
Monday morning Hall of Fame head coach and NBA broadcaster Dr. Jack Ramsay, 89, died. The cause of death was immediately known, though he had endured a long battle with cancer and had been recently diagnosed with a marrow syndrome. Ramsay, a permanent fixture around the NBA, began his professional career in Philadelphia with the 76ers as their general manager, taking the team to an title. He later became their head coach, staying with the Sixers for four years. He had later
Scotto: Eff This: Brooklyn’s Backcourt Spoils Masai Ujiri’s Trip to Brooklyn
Masai Ujiri made his first trip to Brooklyn since his infamous remarks about the borough before Game 1 at a fan rally in Toronto. “F*ck Brooklyn,” Ujiri said. (Some of you might not have known exactly what Ujiri said. Now you know.) Sitting courtside at Barclays Center before Game 3, Ujiri spoke with SheridanHoops about the incident and the hostile environment the Raptors would face in Brooklyn going forward. “It wasn’t about Brooklyn, honestly,” Ujiri told SheridanHoops. “I apologized to Brooklyn, I apologized
NBA Athletes Offer Support For TNT’s Craig Sager
Craig Sager, often recognized for his quirky suits and ties, has been a staple on NBA sidelines for 17 years. Thursday afternoon, Craig Sager, Jr. broke the news on Twitter that his father, long-time NBA on TNT sideline reporter, Craig Sager, would be out for 3-4 weeks while receiving treatment for acute leukemia. [Read more…]
Tweet of the Day: Two NBA Greats Welcomed Into the College Basketball Hall of Fame
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame welcomed two of the sport’s all-time greats as part of its 2014 class on Tuesday. Four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal and two-time NCAA champion Grant Hill joined Darrell Griffith at the top of a very unique and diverse class. The induction ceremony, which will be held in November, will also see Zelmo Beaty, an NAIA star at Prairie View A&M. Additionally, two head coaches LSU’s Dale Brown and Maryland’s Gary Williams—both of whom reached the Final
Tweet of the Day: Harvard Upsets Many Brackets; NBA Players Discuss
The NCAA College Basketball Tournament is underway. Millions of people had hopes of raking in the cash with Yahoo! and Quicken Loans offering a $1 Billion reward for a perfect bracket. However, most of their hopes have been dashed, thanks in large part to two unlikely upsets. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kent Bazemore is all about it, having played for a mid-major school that made a Cinderella run of its own, stringing along unlikely upsets with Old Dominion from the Colonial Athletic
Bernucca: In Trying to Overtake Knicks, Nets Have Become Them
In his stated effort to upstage Knicks owner James Dolan, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has become him. Like Dolan, Prokhorov desperately wants an NBA championship. Like Dolan, he has pursued that desperation with financial abandon, giving his GM an open checkbook. Like Dolan, he has overspent on overvalued big names. Like Dolan, he has mortgaged his team’s future by giving away multiple draft picks. And like Dolan, he appears headed down the abyss. In two months, the Nets have gone from contenders with