Just when we all thought it was impossible, the New Jersey Nets gave us a big surprise and found a team in the NBA, well, barely in the NBA, that they could beat and they went out and beat them.

New Jersey Nets 97 Charlotte Bobcats 91

No, this is not a lie, it actually happened in real time. Kiki Vandeweghe applied some personal philosophy and the Nets took it to an extreme.

Adhering to interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe’s call to relax, have fun and block thoughts of the 0-18 worst start in NBA history, the Nets looked like a team enjoying a fresh start as they hustled, dove, defended, responded after taking some gut punches and, above all, won.

They turned the Charlotte Bobcats into that squad with a team-oriented 97-91 victory that featured spectacular individual efforts by Courtney Lee, Brook Lopez and Devin Harris to make Vandeweghe a winner in his coaching debut.

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Kiki Vandeweghe now stands undefeated as the Nets coach, although he had better not get used to that feeling because he will feel a whole lot of the opposite.

The key comment came from Josh Boone who said, “It is about time”. That about sums it up for one of the worst franchises in the NBA in years. Kiki Vandeweghe has his hands full. Some of your stars are everyday names like Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee and …what, those aren’t everyday names in the NBA? My bad.

Devin Harris learned some secret moves from Shaolin priests

There was lots of talk about playing with emotion and playing together and all that other stuff that seems to work when you win and means very little when you lose.

The silver lining in all of this, if one is needed when you break an eighteen game losing streak, is that fact that the 5 – 15 Knicks are the Nets next opponents. Look out Knicks, the Nets are streaking!

Image: Zuma Press

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The New Jersey Nets are going for the NBA record books with an official shot at the all time open the season and lose games record. The 1988-89 Miami Heat and the 1999-2000 Clippers each started at 0 – 17. That is nothing for the Nets. They have already tied that record and are embarking on a whole new standard of losing.

As a lifelong Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions fan, your intrepid author has seen some monumental losing. Hey, my Grandfather and my Father grew up in New Jersey, so NBAObsessed has some ties to the New Jersey area. You might be surprised to see the Southern Coast of New Jersey, it is beautiful, just a string of islands with beautiful beaches from Atlantic City on south to Cape May. But the Nets are actually closer to New York and competing with the New York Knicks to see who can stink the most.

Tonight you can stop questioning the trade of Jason Kidd to Dallas for Devin Harris. Not to knock Devin, he had an All Star year last year, but somehow it is hard to believe Jason Kidd would have let the Nets sink so low. Now Jason Kidd has the chance to put the proverbial nail in the coffin as a victory tonight by his Mavericks would seal the deal and give the Nets NBA history!

Jason Kidd may send the Nets into the NBA record books

Even if the Nets should surprise the Mavericks they have a long year ahead of them.

Even beyond rebounding, the offense has been flat out dreadful. With All-Star
Devin Harris missing most of the early part of the season with an injury, the Nets have sunk to 30th in the NBA in offensive efficiency. In fact, New Jersey ranks dead last in true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage, field goal percentage, turnover rate, assist rate, points per game and next to last in 3-point percentage.
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Don’t worry New Jersey Nets fans, you can come back and be great. The Detroit Tigers are playoff contenders every other year now and the Detroit Lions…Well, maybe you can’t come back!

Image: Zuma Press

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In case you have been living in a cave all week, the richest man in Russia just dumped 700 million dollars into the New Jersey Nets. His name is Mikhail Prokhorov and he stands at the same eye level as LeBron James only he is much much richer.

For those of you that root for LeBron to stay in Cleveland, it is time to wake up and smell the money. This guy likes to party and thinks nothing of jetting all over the world to have a good time and surrounds himself with beautiful women.

There are now 9.5 billion reasons for LeBron to consider playing for the New Jersey Nets and they are all good ones. This guy likes to win and is not afraid to spend tons of dough to get it done. In Russia, he always hired the best coach and had the highest payroll, sometimes even competing in size with NBA teams.

LeBron James may soon be jetting all over the world

Will LeBron consider playing for him? All you have to do is meet him and see the charisma he shows to realize he knows what he is doing.

Whatever happens, Prokhorov won’t be running the Nets like Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Prokhorov likes to hang with the players, but not so much in the locker room and huddles. He likes it in a social way, and so do they. It’s like running with James Bond, jets on a moment’s notice to the most exotic locations in the world. That’s how he lives, and that’s how they’ll roll. He can offer a superstar lifestyle that few would dare try in the public eye.

The fact there are whispers about him would give him street cred with a lot of players. Mostly, players see owners as dopes to be stroked, but invading Brooklyn with the Russian boss and a stocked, bloated payroll could be a blast.
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The whole deal seems like a slap in the face to other owners, but the amount of money is so great that the league will put up with it and other owners will now start their search for rich foreign basketball owners.

Oh, and when the team moves to Brooklyn, what do we call them? The Brooklyn Nets?

Photo source Newscom

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The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming.

The Chinese are already here with a minority stake in the Cleveland franchise. Now the Russians are on the way to rescue the New York Nets. Is this what is has come to in order to survive?

Maybe it is time to take a more worldly view and realize that the David Stern vision of worldwide basketball would eventually lead to this type of foreign ownership.

Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming, and a Russian owner, this is today's NBA

Maybe next we will have a world NBA Championship with the USA Champion entering a tournament that is held worldwide. ESPN is licking their chops over the thought of it.

The New Jersey Nets want a new stadium. They found Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. To be sure he is evil, KGB, and a spy, right? Well maybe, but on the other hand he is a 9.5 billionaire and those kind of guys are hard to come by when you need them and the Nets need one right now.

Russia’s leading business daily, Kommersant, reported yesterday that as part of a deal, Prokhorov would provide a loan for the Nets and receive a large stake in the club in return.

Ratner faces a crucial December deadline for his plan, which includes the arena to be built in time for the Nets to play there in 2011. The construction needs to break ground by then or lose access to the tax-free bonds financing much of the project.

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Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is already a part owner of CSKA, a Russian basketball team.

Of course, the team name will be changed to the New Jersey Netskys.

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The trade rumor mill is cranked up and some of them are just outstanding. The silly part is they may all come true, because while you are still harping on the Pistons for trading All Star Chauncey Billups for AI, GM Joe D only took him for a free tryout, increased attendance, and a salary of 22 mill that comes off the books. In other words, you don’t know why a team trades for a player.

This rumor you have to love just for the shear unbelievableness. Is that a word? If not, it should be just for this case and this case alone.

Anyway, it looks like the final straw for the little 3 in New Jersey of Kidd, Jefferson, and Carter. Vince was the last one left.

Vince Carter to the Rockets. How messed up can you get? You have body breaking down Yao, gotta have the ball and never will win a playoff Tracey McGrady, and never going to move to Detroit Ron Artest. Now you want to add, gotta also have the ball and never going to win the playoffs Vince Carter to that lineup?

The Nets and Rockets have exchanged trade proposals and continue to talk, according to league sources and sources close to the Nets. One scenario has Carter and Josh Boone going to Houston for Ron Artest, Carl Landry and Luther Head.

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If the trade does go through then Ron Artest would be shipped out of town and head back to New Jersey. Why do some teams just think individual talent will win games?

(This story was posted in Hoopsworld)

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Vince Carter got into it with a Ref and supposedly bumped him. The Ref called him Boy and the league had a long talk with both of them.

Referee Derrick Stafford called two quick technicals on Carter after he argued an out-of-bounds call in the second quarter of the Pistons’ 83-75 victory.

A furious Carter went after the official following his ejection and seemed to bump Stafford. Carter had to be held back by teammates.

“We have spoken to both Vince and Derrick about their exchange during Wednesday’s game, and decided not to take any action with respect to the language that was used or any inadvertent contact that may have occurred,” the league said Friday in a statement provided in an e-mail by spokesman Tim Frank.

“However, we are going to make sure the two of them talk in the near future to clear up any misunderstandings that may remain about what was said during the argument,” the statement added.

The league said Stafford “expressed regret for his use of the word ‘boy,’ and we are persuaded that he did not use it with the intention of demeaning Vince.”

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Yi Jianlian is doing more talking and more dunking

Yi is trying to improve his English, but playing with a bunch of young guys in an NBA basketball team is not exactly like taking a college linguistics course. Then, of course, there is always television, that great educator.

He has his list of the absolute, most valuable phrases learned either last season in Milwaukee, from classes or gleaned from the greatest of all teachers.

Television.

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Yi has learned a set of slang sayings so that he can fit in and understand his current world.

“What’s up?”

“How you doing?”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s good to see you.”

“Let’s go.”

And the ever-popular, “What it do?”

That one came from his Milwaukee experience and cracks up Bobby Simmons, who was with Yi on the Bucks and is again a teammate in New Jersey.

“He picked up a lot of slang terms last year,” Simmons said. “Like some guys will say, ‘What it do?’ for ‘How you doing?’ He’d come in in the morning, with, ‘What it do?’ Small things like that.”

Photo source Newscom

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LeBron James in a Cav’s uni drives on Richard Jefferson in a Net’s uni. Jefferson is now a Buck and LeBron could become a Net

Image details: Cleveland Cavaliers v New Jersey Nets served by picapp.com

The New Jersey Nets are starting over.

Heck, they have been starting over for years. Ever since they beat the Pistons in the conference finals, years ago, they have been on a slow downhill slide.

Now they want LeBron James.

The Nets need a perfect storm to make this happen once James can opt out of his Cleveland Cavaliers contract and make himself the most desirable free agent in NBA history. The Nets are counting on part-owner Jay-Z’s personal crusade to recruit his close friend to Brooklyn, but there’s nothing to discuss until the Nets remake themselves for the long run.

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During the regular season, the Nets unloaded Jason Kidd to Dallas and ended up much younger with Devin Harris.

Now they have traded Richard Jefferson with his 42.5 million dollar contract to the John Hammond run Bucks for Yi Jianlian, so they picked up size and unloaded a sizeable long term contract. Yi may never develop into much of a player, it is too early to tell, but in the New York area, he will have an audience. Meanwhile, John Hammond lands a star player with toughness for his new energized tough Bucks. It will be fun to follow John’s future moves.

In the draft they added size and shooting.

two No. 1 picks on Thursday night – Stanford’s Brook Lopez and California’s Ryan Anderson. They would’ve been satisfied with this change, but a player who they had considered picking at No. 21 – Memphis’ Chris Douglas-Roberts – dropped to them early in the second round.

LeBron James plays one more year before he is a free agent. New Jersey wants to be well under the salary cap, because if they land LeBron, they also may land one of his friends, like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.

If any two of those players are put together … Wow!

You can only imagine how much LeBron could make in New York compared to Cleveland. LeBron would become the global icon that David Stern has wanted since Michael Jordan moved into the front office.

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Jason Kidd cannot pass on a good deal

New Jersey seems intent on trading Jason Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks, so GM Rod Thorn traded Kidd again to Dallas.

The new deal — as reported by various media outlets Sunday night, all citing anonymous sources — has Kidd and forward Malik Allen going to Dallas for point guard Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop and swingman Maurice Ager, plus a few new pieces: retired forward Keith Van Horn and Trenton Hassell.

New Jersey also will get two first-round draft picks and $3 million.

Van Horn and Hassell replace Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George. source

Rod Thorn was not done there, he just went right on trading with Dallas.

In a separate transaction, Dallas will acquire Antoine Wright for a second-round pick.

Hey, why not? Gotta a deal working with Dallas myself, if the commissioner allows by dead great grandfather to be included in the deal.

Van Horn hates paperwork

Talk about a guy that really hates his paperwork. Keith Van Horn never got around to filling out his retirement forms for New Jersey. That is why he can be included in the trade.

How does that work?

And why did you attend his retirement party a year ago. Feel kind of foolish now, don’t you?

Aaron McKie returns

Now it can be revealed that the same stuff took place in the Memphis Grizzlies to Los Angeles Kobe Lakers Pau Gasol trade.

the Los Angeles Lakers had to extricate the 35-year-old from a coaching job in Philadelphia before signing-and-trading him as part of their package for Gasol.

Nothing fishy there, since you only have to convince the league you are serious about playing for the new team. Yeah, right.

Money talks

Apparently there is not much to show are far as desire to play with the amount of money being thrown around. Keith Van Horn was not sure he wanted to leave his business interests in Colorado.

Sources close to the process insist, however, that the league has not imposed any time requirements for staying with the Nets that Van Horn must meet to collect the full $4.3 million he’s scheduled to receive for the rest of the season. source

Hmm, 4.3 millions reasons to leave Colorado.

Anyway, Kidd was traded to Dallas and may being playing as a Maverick with Dirk Nowitzki and company as soon as Wednesday.

If not, Rod Thorn can always trade him again.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will Jason Kidd take Dallas to the title?

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LeBron James All Star MVP – Time to get out of Dodge err Cleveland!

With David Stern happy to have NBA Marketing Icon LeBron James as the MVP of the 2008 All Star game, the world can move on.

If you had to lay odds, it had to be James as MVP.

The NBA is a marketing organization, not a sports organization. Right now the future of the NBA seems secure, with possible expansion out of the USA and many stars in the league, but it can change fast and David Stern knows that.

Don’t get me wrong, LeBron is so good he probably would win the MVP of the All Star game anyway, almost every year.

It wouldn’t be long until these pulsating final minutes of this fabulous All-Star Game ultimately belonged to the genius of its Most Valuable Player with 27 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. It wouldn’t be long until commissioner David Stern passed him his second trophy at 23 years old, and the world would see who the star of stars was again at New Orleans Arena.

“LeBron is a freight train when he goes to that basket,” West coach Byron Scott sighed. “He’s so big, and so strong – so quick and so powerful. It’s hard to stop him when he gets the momentum going like that.” source

Now it is time to plan for LeBron to leave Cleveland.

The Cavaliers will have a hard time putting together consistent teams in Cleveland.

Over the summer, LeBron, Bryant and Jason Kidd were grumbling teammates with Team USA. Bryant wanted out of Los Angeles. Kidd wanted a trade to Cleveland. And James just wanted someone to share the burden with him. Well, the two point guards whom Cleveland GM Danny Ferry had tried to obtain for two years – Kidd and Mike Bibby – are on the way to Dallas and Atlanta.

The NBA needs to keep LeBron on the highest stage possible. That stage would be the NBA Playoffs and probably at least the Conference Finals. Hopefully the Championship series itself.

You can’t market Tim Duncan.

As much as it hurts your intrepid author (a huge Pistons fan), the League does not want anymore San Antonio Spurs vs. Detroit Pistons series. To fans outside of those teams, it is boring. They play defense.

Think of Kevin Garnett’s Boston Celtics vs. Kobe’s Lakers.

Think of Steve Nash and the Shaq bringing the Suns in to play LeBron James when he is on the Knicks (without Isiah).