connecting*the*dots

Dear Rod,

Remember when I asked you for a Nets squad that could in the very least compete with other NBA teams a few years back? You responded by delivering us K-Mart, J-Kidd, RJ and a healthy Kerry Kittles. Well, I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for that one. Thank you. It was huge. Watching Nets’ playoff basketball was a dream of mine for years and contending for two championships was, well, an experience beyond my wildest expectations.

Now, please don’t take the rest of this the wrong way. You’re obviously still the Man; the Mac Daddy, Pimp Extraordinaire; a true Thug. The last thing I’d ever do is tell you how to do your job. I mean, you did draft the greatest basketball player to ever play the game after two Rod-wanna-be GM’s passed him up. Over the course of your career, you’ve earned the right to be provided with the benefit of doubt for any move… and then some. Here’s my dilemma: I’m not privy to your eyes and ears.

All media reports indicated that Shareef’s knee scarring was present since high school and that it’s never been an issue during his career. You were about to sign him to a relatively cheap contract, locking him up for six years, until his 34th birthday. Couldn’t we have just rolled the dice and bet on his ROI to ring true within the next two years? I mean, J-Kidd isn’t getting any younger. By the time an arthritic condition might set in, we’d be in rebuilding mode anyway… right? See, this is me — an interactive strategist — trying to play Rod without all of the available information. It is blasphemy. But you do get my point, right? The window is closing on this J-Kidd led squad. The future is now.

So we now have Wright replacing Buford as the backup swing-man, McInnis replacing Best as the backup scoring point and Jackson replacing Smith as the backup… big scrub. Each of these moves has improved the team, but we still don’t have a back-to-the-basket PF. Remember the playoffs, when Miami doubled Vince and our offense completely shut down? Sorry, man, of course you remember. And sure, I realize that RJ wasn’t at 100% either, so maybe the results would be different this time around. But with all due respect, I don’t believe that for a minute.

So here I kneel, praying to Rod that you’ll listen to me once more. Would I take a Brian Grant signing? Sure. But he doesn’t bring anything to the table on the offensive end. Here’s my armchair GM suggestion: VC for Okafor and a few contracts. Vince wows the crowds every night in NC (with Sean Mays and Raymond Felton in tow) and we get a young, solid post-up player with great rebounding and shot blocking skills. Then, as only you could do, sign Michael Finley off waivers as our starting 2.

J-Kidd, Finley, RJ, Okafur and Nenad. Not to0 shabby.

Again, it’s your world, Rod, I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut. My honor code is Rod, family and friends — in that order. So you go do what it is that you do so well: hustle a GM into thinking that he’s the Man and rip out his heart in the process. You do you. I’m just going to kick back and watch the story unfold with amazement.

Amen.

According to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the Nets are on the verge of landing Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and they may be able to pull it off without sending a first-round pick to Portland. If Rod Thorn and Bruce Ratner pull this off, I’m man enough to admit I made a huge mistake creating voodoo dolls of the two of them after they got rid of Kenyon Martin. Why was I so upset? You have to know the pain of a 25-year long Nets fan to even begin to understand.

K-Mart was the heart of the Nets team that made the finals two-years straight. The team was terrible for years prior to him joining the squad. Terrible can’t even begin to describe the team; they had no heart, no sense of pride, with players walking onto the court with “Trade Me” and “All Alone” scribbled onto their sneakers. K-Mart changed that attitude by just stepping on the court. As an athletic rookie with extremely raw skills, he was too loud with too much bravado for most to stomach, but Martin knew what he brought to the team and wouldn’t allow his team to be treated like a bunch of punks by the opposition. When Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson joined the team the following year, the Nets turned the corner for good and became a top-tier club; finally, a winning team, fun at that, to root for.

Last year, during Martin’s free-agent dealings, the Denver Nuggets swept in and out-bid Bruce Ratner for his services, resulting in a sign-and-trade. I went absolutely bonkers, renouncing my season tickets and dipping my game-watching from every game to 75% or so (for those of you that don’t know me, that’s significant). K-Mart’s game is strong, but it was his heart that I instantly missed.

While I still appreciate Martin from afar, I have to admit I was absolutely reactionary about the decision to trade him. The deal landed the Nets three first-round draft picks; two of which transformed into Vince Carter through the trade with the Toronto Raptors. Now, if Chad Ford is right, Thorn and Ratner might land Shareef Abdur-Rahim for nothing in return aside from a $5 million trade exception they landed in the Kerry Kittles trade. That’s ridiculous management. In essence, the Nets added Vince Carter and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, replacing Kerry Kittles and Kenyon Martin… in one year.

Abdur-Rahim has been called soft in the past, but he’s a career 20 ppg/8 rb player. If that’s soft, I’ll take it. And if he doesn’t want to take the big shot, the starting line-up for the Nets is stocked with All-Star talent, I’m sure Jefferson, Carter or Kidd will step up. The soft label is probably due to his defensive game (or lack thereof), but from where I’m sitting he can’t be any softer than Jason "Pillsbury Man" Collins, a 7′ 1" man who can’t average 6 boards in 30 minutes per game, thinks that a charge call is classic defensive intensity and rotates about as fast as a tire with the car in park.

I’ve watched SAR enough times to know that he can bury a team all by himself. He has crafty, juke post moves reminiscent of Hakeem Olajuwon and is consistent with his jumper out to 20 feet. He’s versatile enough to play both SF and PF and makes his free throws at an 80% + clip. SAR is the opposite of K-Mart: quiet, reserved, a stat-filler and, yes, a poor defender who sometimes fades away on the defensive side of the ball. The gamble on him in minimal because the Nets are well coached and in a solid defensive structure; something Abdur-Rahim has never had the pleasure of working within. And since the Nets already have the swagger and filled with star power, his role is more defined.

Martin was the beginning of establishing this legacy, all Shareef has to do is play hard and produce. If he does, there just might be an annual trip to The Swamp planned for sometime in late June.

Salaam, SAR.

My buddy sent me these shots from a friend of his. Nash & Nowitzki… I have feeling these two will be throwing ‘em back once again, real soon. The MVP is now only one game away from the summer months and pouring a tall one for his Euro-buddy.

I love that athletes look just as dumb as us after 10 to 15 Budweisers.

UPDATE: More brilliant drunkenness

Linda and I hopped on the Q Saturday afternoon and rolled down to Coney Island to catch the yearly spectacle "Mermaid Parade." When we got there, we realized that we came a bit too late as the streets were packed with spectators and mermaids were hustling to get into position. We did the best we could and shoved our way to the front of the rows of people stacked six deep and waited for the show to begin.

Now here’s something I didn’t know about mermaids; apparently they like to drive vintage hot rods and burn massive amounts of rubber. One mer-dude peeled out right in front of five cops and got them all choking on melted rubber fumes. I laughed really hard, which had people looking at me funny, because ever since 9/11, it seems that no one can make fun of cops in NYC. I still thought it was a Kodak moment. Sue me.

The next thing I learned was that drunken mermaids like to show off their boobs. Actually, all of the mermaids seemed to enjoy it. It made me smile. Linda didn’t say anything, but I think she thought I was a perv. I just found the whole spectacle amusing.

We ended up walking around for hours, stopping once to eat and once for me to lose five bucks on a basketball shooting game (it was rigged, I swear). At the end of the day, after spending an hour watching people on the boardwalk we dragged our tired, burnt asses to the train and went home.

Brooklyn rules!