The final game at The Izod Center, formerly Continental Airlines Arena and Brendan Byrne Arena, was anything but sad. Former players didn’t make one last appearance to say goodbye. Celebrities weren’t sitting in courtside seats to be a part of history. Not even a larger-than-normal media contingent was on hand. Perhaps a video montage showing arena employees of 20-plus years was the only remotely touching moment of the evening.
If anything, the Nets are ready to start anew. Next season they’ll move south to the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., where they’ll play for at least the next two years. Then, if all goes as planned, they’ll call Brooklyn, N.Y. home from there on out.
A new beginning could be what’s best for this Nets team. In a season which they’ve gone an NBA-worst 12-69 — one game remains in Miami on Wednesday — a clean slate may allow for forgiveness. In all, 10 expiring contracts will come off the books when the game clock hits zero in South Beach. A lottery draft pick, a big-name free agent, or two, a top-notch head coach and a few key returnees (Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee and Terrence Williams) can certainly help jumpstart this movement.
“We’re only a few pieces away and we know that,” Harris said. “We have a lot of things in place to make our team a lot better very quickly. That makes an exciting time for the summer.”
“I’m proud of the way the guys responded this season,” Nets head coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “I walked in the building and we were 0-18 and really struggling. I thought they were down as individuals and as a team and we were able to fight back and I’m glad I was able to be a part of that. Any time you’re part of a group that keeps trying, keeps fighting, you have fond memories from that.”
But all through this mess of a season, the Nets did have mild success over one team: the Charlotte Bobcats. New Jersey was aiming for their third win over the Bobcats on Monday night, their most against any opponent. What makes that number interesting is that the Bobcats are a playoff team who has secured the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference.
Bobcats head coach Larry Brown said his team struggled matching the Nets’ energy in those loses. (Brown also believes Vandeweghe purposely waited to start coaching the Nets until they faced a beatable Charlotte team so he could get a win. “That was a setup game, no doubt about it,” Brown said.) Ironically, Brown was head coach of the Nets when they moved into the arena on October 30, 1981. Twenty-nine years and 1,288 games later, he was back.
The Nets trailed 59-44 heading into the locker room at half time, but were able to regain the lead midway through the third. That small separation lasted only a minute before the Bobcats pulled away for good in the 105-95 loss. Williams, coming off a triple-double against the Bulls on Sunday, dropped 21 points and grabbed 13 boards, while Harris added 22 of his own. The loss gave the Nets a 683-545 record all-time, including the playoffs, in the arena. Brown was complimentary of his former team after the victory.
“They played great and can beat anybody,” he said. “Now that Terrence is playing the way that he’s playing, that’s a pretty good team.”
“It was definitely a big plus playing Charlotte as many times as we played them,” Williams said. “I think especially with myself, with confidence brings the games a lot easier to me. If you’re out there worrying about if you make one mistake then you’re going to come out of the game then you can’t get in the groove. You can’t really sweat that.”
With one game remaining, several Nets players said they’re looking forward to the future rather than dwelling on this past season.
“Obviously we feel we underachieved tremendously but we do have a bright future and that’s what we’re looking forward to now,” Harris said. “We’ve got a lot of things to look forward to this summer and now we can get better as a team.”
Lee, who was acquired this past offseason in the Vince Carter deal with the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic, added: “It was a learning experience so I tried to not look at anything negative and always tried to find the positives. I’m taking it as a learning experience from going from the top to the bottom and seeing how hard you have to work. I was spoiled in my first year being on a good team and going to the Finals. So just seeing that it’s not like that everywhere, it’s understanding the business.”
Guard Chris Douglas-Roberts is one of the 11 players whose contract might not be picked up next season. That means his outlook for the future is anything but clear.
“I’m excited the season is about to be over. Point blank,” he said. “I can’t really talk about the future because I don’t really know what my future is with this team right now”
As for what Douglas-Roberts and Lee would want fans to remember about this season, outside of the measly record:
Lee: “Hopefully they don’t look back on this season. Other than that, hopefully they just look back and see we started off rough and we weren’t winning games, but we continued to play as a team to get better and just fought to do everything throughout the whole season.”
Douglas-Roberts: “At the end of the day we won 12 games; that’s a bad year. It’s more than a bad year, it’s an awful year. That’s what people are going to remember. There’s really nothing you can take away from this. The only thing you can take away is that we didn’t finish the worst team in history and that’s not anything to be happy about either.”
When reminded that it could be 13 wins after the Miami game, Douglas-Roberts could only laugh. “Right,” he said.
And they say goodbyes are never easy.
Here are a few lasts in Nets history at The Meadowlands:
Starting lineup: Devin Harris (G), Courtney Lee (G), Terrence Williams (F), Yi Jianlian (F), Brook Lopez (C)
Jumpball: Brook Lopez vs. Theo Ratliff (Bobcats won)
Rebound: Yi Jianlian
Basket: Terrence Williams, two points
Score: Nets 93, Bobcats 105
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