The New Jersey Nets won their tenth game of the season yesterday, thereby escaping the dreaded title of the NBA’s worst team ever. But don’t cheer too loudly yet.
After winning their tenth game, the Nets avoided the dubious distinction as the NBA’s most inept team. That honor is still squarely on the shoulders of the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers who finished 9-73. In winning 3 of their last 4 games, the Nets need to be careful not to catch the 14-win Minnesota Timberwolves. Losing any ping pong balls in the John Wall (1st)/Evan Turner (2nd) lottery would not be good news for the struggling franchise.
Given the lows of this season, the future is surprisingly bright for the Nets. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is ready to take the NJ Nets to heights they haven’t seen since Kidd was running the point. Prokhorov clearly wants stars. And there is no bigger star on the market than LeBron James, who has an already tight relationship with hip-hop legend and part Nets owner, Jay-Z. And unlike some fledgling franchises, the Nets actually have some good pieces: a franchise center in Brook Lopez, an excellent-when-not-injured point gaurd in Devin Harris, and a crafty 2 gaurd in Courtney Lee. If the ping pong balls take the right bounce in Secaucus, the Nets could be one free agent away from making some big time noise.
Now the Nets just need to do what they do best: keep losing!
