The 3 p.m., March 15 trade deadline has come and gone as fast as your brackets will be busted by this weekend’s end. Most cats around the league can now breathe easy, knowing they haven’t been dealt and can focus on the remaining part of the schedule. Others, however, must deal with the reality they were shipped out like yesterday’s garbage. Either way, this a time for them to regroup and stop commenting on every rumor that appears on blogs and Twitter. Read More »

Thursday started as a good day for the New Jersey Nets. They began the day by agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson. Stevenson won a championship with the Mavericks last season and will immediately provide a winning pedigree, toughness and perimeter defense to a team lacking in all three areas. However, the way the day ended overshadowed the shrewd morning signing of Stevenson. Yesterday evening it was announced that starting center Brook Lopez had a stress fracture in his foot and would be out for six to eight weeks with the injury. This injury is one that could change the course and future of the franchise and hurts the Nets on multiple levels. Read More »

It’s always sad to see teams feel forced into a trade in preparation of the inevitable. But if a franchise can’t make a convincing argument for a player to stay – whether it be a competitive roster or boatloads of cash – then there’s nothing they can do. Like any investment that doesn’t pan out, businesses have to cut their losses and make the best move for the future. We saw this last season with the trades of Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams to the Eastern Conference, and could see it again real soon in the case of Dwight Howard. Read More »

And you thought the Shaq vs. Kobe beef was over? It’ll never end. This will go on longer than anything, linger longer than Brett Favre, and it’ll probably still have people talking 10 years down the road. All was quiet on the front for a while, but O’Neal has a new autobiography dropping on Nov. 15 – it’s called Shaq Uncut: My Story and it’s co-written with Jackie MacMullan – and the book gives some more inside info on O’Neal’s view of the feud between two of the most polarizing players in NBA history. According to Shaq, it was Kobe that destroyed the team’s shot at a title in 2004, the year they had Karl Malone and Gary Payton. Read More »

This is exciting. I can honestly say I was impressed by your ingenuity, curiosity and grammar. Considering none of those usually fall under the unwritten rules of commenter etiquette, I think it’s a sign of good things to come. Anyway, to the questions. Read More »

Five years ago to this day, a microblogging entity known as Twitter was launched not as a rival to MySpace or Facebook, but with an Internet niche all its own. Only in the past year or so has it exploded, and just as Shaquille O’Neal was the biggest man in basketball, Shaq created a Twitter boom that caught on with NBA players and beyond.

Where does Twitter go from here? We can only guess, but in the fledgling years of the social media website, here’s my attempt at ranking the Top 10 Twitter accounts for the hardcore basketball fan. Read More »

Back in 2004, part-ownership of an NBA team was called by MTV “the new hip-hop status symbol.” From Jay-Z (Nets) to Nelly (Bobcats) to Usher (Cavs), it seemed like one-named rappers were destined to join the Mark Cubans and Dan Gilberts of the world at the NBA roundtable. (I’m still hoping Magoo can scrape together enough paper to buy-in somewhere.) But unlike Mr. St. Lunatic and Mr. Raymond, Nets general manager Billy King says that Jay-Z’s role with the team is a very active one. Read More »

Since taking over as owner of the Nets back in May, Mikhail Prokhorov has desperately tried to make the team relevant. He flew in his private jet to recruit LeBron James this summer, had dinner with Carmelo Anthony at All-Star Weekend and put up his “Blueprint for Greatness” billboard across the street from Madison Square Garden. Up until today, all those attempts had failed to come across as anything more than excessive bravado that wasn’t paying off. No stars came (or wanted to come) to New Jersey, but now Prokhorov has finally followed through, and at least made the Nets worth talking about again with the acquisition of Deron Williams. Read More »

Well this is crazy! Just a day after the Nets missed out on another big player acquisition, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Nets have traded for Deron Williams, while sending Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and two first-round picks to the Jazz. New Jersey will also send Troy Murphy to Golden State, and the Warriors will send Dan Gadzuric and Brandan Wright to the Nets. Read More »

When Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets back in May, I drank the Prokhorov Kool-Aid like no other. As a diehard Nets fan, I had just witnessed a 12-win season, the team trading away all of my favorite players, and worst of all, losing the Draft Lottery and seeing the Wizards end up with John Wall. My optimism about the team was at an all-time low, and the only thing I could grasp on to for any hope was Prokhorov with his deep pockets and bravado. Read More »