connecting*the*dots

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.