Once upon a time, there was a pro basketball team in New York called the Nets.
Led by the superlative Julius “Dr. J.” Erving, it consistently made the playoffs in the old American Basketball Association (the ABA), and even won championships, in 1974 and 1976. But then, the team joined the NBA and—reneging on a promise to give Dr. J a raise—instead sold him to the Philadelphia 76ers before the start of the 1976-77 season. Then the team moved to New Jersey in 1977. After those two events, the Nets stopped contending. The franchise—which had won more than 65 percent of its regular-season games in three straight seasons just prior to the ABA’s merger with the NBA—never again hit that mark in any of its 35 seasons in New Jersey.
Of the two moves, losing Dr. J. was clearly the more important. He immediately became the 76ers’ most productive player and eventually delivered them a championship. But long after Dr. J. had left the game, the Nets in New Jersey continued to struggle. Life was especially bad in 2009-10, when the team lost their first 18 games, on the way to a record of 12-70.
Here, the story seemed about to turn, for when this dreadful season ended, hope appeared on the horizon. After the 2009-10 season, the NBA approved the sale of the Nets to the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. Prokhorov, it seemed clear, would not be selling off players to avoid raises.
The first two seasons of Prokhorov’s ownership were not especially inspiring; the team continued to lose with regularity. But in 2012, the Nets finally returned to New York. Not only did the team change its address, the Nets also changed its roster.
Not surprisingly, the 2009-10 team did not have a single player who had ever appeared in an All-Star game. But in February of 2011, the Nets traded for All-Star point guard Deron Williams, and in July of 2012 the Nets traded for All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson. With Williams and Johnson on board, the Nets managed to win 49 games in 2012-13. And if two All-Stars gets you to 49 wins, Prokhorov might have thought, what will you get if you add three more?
This past summer the Nets traded for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, future Hall of Famers who had previously led the Boston Celtics to a championship. The team also signed Prokhorov’s countryman, the forward Andrei Kirilenko. The resulting quintet entered the 2013-14 season with 34 All-Star game appearances between them, and Prokhorov spoke of victory parades.
All these All-Stars, though, came at a cost. Back in 2009-10, the New Jersey Nets spent less on payroll than all but four of the NBA’s 30 teams. This year, the Brooklyn Nets—with a payroll beyond $100 million—are spending more than anyone. Indeed, once you figure in the penalties for going above the league’s salary cap, the Nets are the most expensive basketball team ever (and by a very large margin).
All this spending on all these All-Stars led Brooklyn fans to expect something wonderful to happen—a storybook ending, if you will. But with more than 35 percent of the season now in the books, the Nets are not even in playoff contention, despite playing in the Eastern Conference, which is woefully bad. With all this spending, the Brooklyn fans expected a return to the glory days of Dr. J. What they got was a typical team from New Jersey.
So what happened?
Not a bad article, but sabre-matricians can fall into the same trap as economists, becoming enamored with their models, while being blind to what is really happening on the court. In this case, the author claims that coaches do not make much of a difference. I'd like him to meet a man by the name of Greg Popovich.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies, Brooklyn, but may your team continue its multi-decade run of disappointment, and may it lose boatloads of money.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I have anything particular against the Nets, but their Barclays Center home and its associated Atlantic Yards development represents, like MetroTech before it, the worst excesses of the "public/private partnership" and deserves nothing more than utter contempt.
It was masterminded by someone who epitomizes the revolving door developer, the execrable Bruce Ratner. It was financed by over $750M in taxpayer subsidies, which still aren't enough for the ever-grubbing Ratner, who's suing the city for even more tax breaks, even though his perpetually incompetent development team still hasn't managed to complete the project.
And the whole miserable undertaking was only made possible because the craven city, abetted by the corrupt state court system, forcibly took by eminent domain the property of the former residents.
So may the Nets continue to stink, I say. They're a perfect symbol for the whole rotten venture.
Ditto. All pro sports fascists can suck it. Stealing for sports? Horseshit.
DeleteNew York Nets rhymes with New York Jets and New York Mets. Calling them "New Jersey" and "Brooklyn" is the beginning of their problems.
ReplyDeleteSorta like the Minneapolis Lakers (LAKES in Minnesota - get it?), New Orleans Jazz (Jazz in New Orleans - get it?) .
In the Jazz's defense, calling themselves the "Utah Extraordinarily Hygenic White People" is hard to fit on a jersey. If they named the team, the Utah Mormons, it fits but they would annoy everyone.
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