"I Say GO! You Say NETS!"

I went to the final home game for the New Jersey Nets on Monday evening, against the Philadelphia 76ers. It included a tribute to many former New Jersey Nets players, dating back from the earliest days of the franchise's move to the Garden State, and right up to the 2002 Eastern Conference Championship squad that celebrated a ten year anniversary.

I was amazed to be reminded that the incredible 2002 championship run had reached the ten year anniversary! The very best basketball game I have ever seen, let alone been to, was then. Game 5 of the first round series between the Indiana Pacers and the Nets. New Jersey had not won a playoff series in eighteen years, and the Pacers always were a dangerous team to have to play against. You never knew when Reggie Miller would ignite the team, when he would come alive with an incredible string of three pointers to serve as a dagger in the heart to so many teams. He had one of those nights again that night, but the Nets managed to overcome and persevere, surviving that game in double overtime to clinch the series, and then going on to eventually capture their first ever Eastern Conference Championship, before eventually losing in a sweep to the dynasty Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. I already wrote about

Over the years, I have been to many Nets games. I have seen a number of remarkable players don the Nets uniform, including Jason Kidd, Kerry Kittles, Kenyon martin (K-Mart, as he if often known as), Vince Carter, Derrick Coleman, Kenny Anderson, Chris Morris, Stephon Marbury, Jayson Williams, Keith Van Horn, Deron Williams, Kris Humphries (he of Kardashian Wedding fame, or perhaps rather infamy), Brook Lopez, MarShon Brooks, PJ Brown, Alonzo Mourning, Sasha Vujacic, and one of the most decent and charitable guys to ever play the game, Dikembe Mutombo. Those are some incredible guys to have played for the team over the years! Chuck Daly used to be the head coach, not that long after his successful championship runs with the Detroit Pistons, during their "Bad Boys" days. Byron Scott was coach during their Eastern Conference Championship days in the 2002 & 2003 playoffs. Unfortunately, none of those guys ever won an NBA Championship ring with the New Jersey Nets, although some came much closer than others.

I have also seen some great and memorable visiting teams, as well. The most notable were the Chicago Bulls in April of 1996, as they were en route to an NBA record 72-10 regular season record and a fourth championship in six years. They would go on to win six overall. But I also saw the Lakers in the days of Kobe and Shaq and Phil Jackson, and more recently, saw the Lakers most recent championship squad, as well. The championship Houston Rockets of the mid-90's, the 1999 San Antonio Spurs, the reincarnation of the "Bad Boys" Detroit Pistons in the mid-2000's, the 2008 Boston Celtics, the most recent championship team of that storied squad. I saw some major stars on many of those other teams as well, including Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Hakeem "The Dream" Olijuwon, Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, KJ Kevin Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Latrell Sprewell, Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Robinson, Tony Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Antoine Walker. Some of the famous coaches include Larry Brown, Phil Jackson, Greg Popavich, Rudy Tomjanovich, Jerry Sloan, and a number of others, as well. There are probably some players and coaches I am forgetting, to boot! It was often a truly

Perhaps one of the most entertaining aspects was just how far the Nets organization would go to keep the home fans entertained. There were acrobats doing their thing, flips and all sorts. Sexy dancers doing their routines, sometimes shedding some of their clothes. There were always t-shirt giveaways, and there also was always some mascot or another. Hell, in the 1990's, when attendance was very low on average, and the team really had no huge history to fall back on, the gimmicks that they pulled to try and entertain were outright damn comical! I still remember Barney the Purple Dragon getting in a staged, pro wrestling style fight, where he was getting destroyed, only to come back and destroy his opponent, and then dance around arrogantly afterward. Yes, not all of the PR stunts that they pulled were winners, and that one was almost so stupid as to be funny enough to put tears in my eyes. More often than not however, these gimmicks tended to be over the top. The enthusiasm that the PR forced upon people did not match the general indifference with which it was received.

One that I remember particularly fondly was a chant from a guy with a very deep throat, who would shout, "I say go, you says Nets! GO!"

Maybe a few people would respond, "Bets", without much relish.

But the deep voice would not be denied, and he kept the chant going strong. He would repeat, "GO!"

Someone would scratch their head and mutter under their breath, "nets".

The voice would keep going and gong, like the Energizer Bunny, and to the same complete lack of response. It was almost comical, and to me, seemed almost to encapsulate the reality of what the New Jersey Nets were, unfortunately. People just did not get all that fired up, even, really, when they were enjoying their pinnacle of success about ten years ago.

Still, it must be said that it was a privilege to have had such ready access to a professional basketball team, and so close to home! I know that locally, the Knicks are the far more popular team, and traditionally, they are the team that has the richer, fuller history, having won championships and enjoyed far more successful seasons, had bigger stars, etc.. But the Nets represented New Jersey, and they managed to enjoy some good runs at success, as well.

As for the game on Monday, my brother and I mused, on the walk over to the arena from the parking lot, that it would be fitting if the arena were only half full, with a few thousand people showing up. But as it happened, there were a lot of people there, and mostly, it was filled with Nets fans! There were some 76ers fans present, but they were a tiny minority.

Still, that tiny minority got to walk out of the arena happy, because their team finally clinches a playoff berth that evening. They earned it by managing to win big over the Nets. So, while the arena being full maybe was uncharacteristic of the Nets, the fact that they lost, and lost big, was indeed a fitting ending for their time in New Jersey. Not that they were always losers there, but just the majority of the time. The vast majority of the time even, it seemed.

So, Go Nets?

Yup, they're gone. It's official, now.