Mike Silva's Sports Media Watchdog » Blog Archive » As Expected, Same Old Nets, But Even More Hysterical

As Expected, Same Old Nets, But Even More Hysterical

By Mike Silva ~ December 28th, 2012. Filed under: NBA.

Everyone was excited to have the Nets in Brooklyn. A state-of-the-art arena, new jerseys and a Russian billionaire couldn’t disguise the fact that we are still dealing with the same cursed franchise that played across the river in a swamp. After a 14-14 start, the Nets honored their history yesterday by kicking Avery Johnson out the door. The same coach that sat through two miserable rebuilding years in an empty arena in the swamp of New Jersey. A coach who was honored as the best in basketball the first month of the season.

This wasn’t supposed to be another scenario where a revolving door of coaches try to motivate this generation’s Kenny Anderson, Derrick Coleman and Chris Morris. Avery Johnson came to New Jersey with the highest winning percentage in NBA history. He won 60 games in 2+ seasons with the Nets or 7 less than his 2006-2007 Dallas team won.

The mistake the media, fans and Nets’ ownership made was believing that Brooklyn would change everything. A new arena and uniform doesn’t equate success. Look at every expansion team in the history of sports. Their uniforms and city didn’t prevent them from being awful. The Nets are coming to Brooklyn five decades after the peak of the borough’s charm. Instead of moving away from the Knicks’ shadow, they elected to rent a room in their upstairs attic. Instead of accepting their niche as a nice winter diversion when the Brooklyn hipsters are tired of coffee shops and grunge bands, they talked championship and erasing the history of one of the NBA’s original team’s. The owner even threatened to get married if his team didn’t win a title. It was faux machismo, and obnoxious to boot.

The problem with this team is they talk like they aren’t dysfunctional anymore, but act just as clownish. Instead of focusing on the process of becoming a better basketball team, they worried about trash talking the Knicks. Look at their Brooklyn resume and tell me if it’s any different than New Jersey? They fire the November coach-of-the-month. Did the NBA even send out the trophy yet? Better yet, can Mike Woodson claim his rightful title? Deron Williams kills his second coach in three years, and their most popular player is known for making a fool of himself on national TV during his 72-day marriage. At one point, if you Googled their mascot, the Brooklyn Knight, you ran the risk of being redirected to an adult entertainment site. They replaced Johnson with a coach known to ride players to the point where they nearly choked him to death. I don’t know about you, but if I were a Nets fan I would be yearning for the Secaucus Seven and the good old days of Butch Beard.

The funny thing is this team is about as fake as those Brooklyn fans who really aren’t from Brooklyn. The best-case scenario for this group is achieving the same heights we have seen out of the Atlanta Hawks the last few years. Think 50 wins, maybe a first round victory and some exciting regular season moments. That’s if everything breaks right. Brooklyn and Jay-Z was such a selling point they had to settle for no one during the summer of Lebron. They then set their sights on Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, losing out on both. The result was Deron Williams trying to make a supporting cast of Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace title contenders. He couldn’t do it with arguably a similar to better roster in Utah. What made you think he would do it in the “Borough of Churches?” Better yet, what makes you think he can do it when Joe Johnson is slated to clog up a third of their payroll in the coming years.

Should we be surprised? No. This team was a fake from the start. Fake owner in Jay-Z, fake Brooklyn pride from fans who have lived in the borough for five minutes, fake gangster black and white uniforms, and a fake elite point guard who might not be as elite as we all think now that he’s on a bigger stage.

As expected same old Nets. Just in a new state-of-the-art building.

It’s actually not sad; it’s kind of funny – even hysterical.

Mike Silva is a freelance media professional. He discusses sports and media with a New York slant at his personal blog "The Sports Media Watchdog." He hosts the NY Baseball Talk and Sports Media Watchdog podcasts, and a monthly radio show on 1240 AM WGBB. Contact him professionally at mikesilvamedia.com

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Tags: Avery Johnson, Brooklyn Nets

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As Expected, Same Old Nets, But Even More Hysterical

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