Stars’ perception impedes Nets’ progress

The Nets have offered Denver the best package for Carmelo Anthony, but the All-Star forward is still hesitant to pack his bags. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

By Mark Ginocchio

With Zach Lowe off until Jan. 3, some guest writers will be contributing. Mark Ginocchio is a professional writer and managing editor of Nets Are Scorching, which is part of the True Hoop Network, an ESPN affiliate. To keep tabs on all his Nets updates, check him out on Twitter.

Despite LeBron James’ pseudo-retraction earlier this week about the future of the New Jersey Nets in the NBA, the team from the swamp is, in fact, expected to be contracted within the next two years. And before you accuse me of being like LeBron and not knowing the meaning of the word “contraction,” you have to understand that there may be no franchise in the NBA and all of sports that is undergoing a more intensive rebranding than the Nets. By the time this organization moves to Brooklyn at the start of the 2012-13 season (and despite what some pundits believe, the move to Brooklyn IS happening), the Nets are expected to be scrubbed out of the current NBA lexicon and repackaged as the Brooklyn … whatevers (Ballers? Knights? Eagles? New Yorkers?!).

The problem for the 2010-11 incarnation of the organization is no one else around the league seems to be aware of the team’s imminent contraction, ultimately preventing the franchise from taking the giant step forward it desperately desires in the eyes of the league’s top players.

It’s the focal point of the team’s ongoing negotiations with the Denver Nuggets and their disgruntled star, Carmelo Anthony. By all accounts, Anthony should already be in a Nets uniform. A package centered on well-regarded rookie Derrick Favors, multiple first-round draft picks and the expiring contract of Troy Murphy cannot be topped by any other team in the league (and certainly not by the Nets’ chief rivals, the Knicks), yet despite Denver’s apparent desperation to move Anthony before he can walk away for nothing at year’s end, a deal has not been made. The sticking point continues to be whether Anthony would sign an extension with the Nets, agreeing to play in the temporary confines of Newark’s relatively new Prudential Center for the next season and a half, before being able to suit up in his home city of Brooklyn, being the marquee player for the NBA’s newest and most hyped franchise.

The opportunity for Anthony to be the superstar for Brooklyn’s first professional sports team since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season is one of those things that make sports so engaging. The prodigal son returns to his hometown to help give birth to a new organization in a city that has been without a professional sports hero in its backyard for more than 50 years. Yet, rather than celebrate this storyline, the consensus from the NBA media, citing sources from Carmelo’s inner circle, is that Anthony is reluctant to sign an extension with the Nets because, for now, they’re still the Nets, and they will continue to be the Nets until every last segment of this organization that was just in back-to-back NBA Finals less than 10 years ago is erased from memory.

LeBron’s latest comments are even more proof of the current state of the Nets. Putting aside for a moment what James actually meant by his contraction comments last week, LeBron’s perception of the NBA food chain speaks volumes about what the league’s elite actually think of the Nets’ organization. He grouped New Jersey with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the league’s two worst teams a season ago, ignoring organizations like the Charlotte Bobcats, where the NBA has already failed once, or the New Orleans Hornets, who are without a proper owner, or even the Los Angeles Clippers, the epitome of sports’ red-headed stepchildren. And wasn’t it just a few months earlier when the Nets’ new, ultra-competitive owner, Mikhail Prokhorov – the richest owner in the NBA — flew to LeBron’s house on his Gulfstream V, selling James on Brooklyn and his global vision for the organization? Did James just forget about all of this when he chose to take his talents to South Beach?

While the Nets, as you or I know them, may cease to exist in another 18 months, Prokhorov is still acting like an owner who is trying to become a world champion within five years — as he boldly proclaimed when he took the franchise over in May.  He has aggressively invested in the team’s coaching staff and scouting departments, addressing the cutbacks from the prior ownership.  By playing such a strong hand in the Anthony sweepstakes, Prokhorov is demonstrating he is not satisfied in waiting for a group of rookies and role players to jell with the team’s current focal points — Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, who are above-average players, but not stars by the league’s definition. Yet, the Carmelos and the LeBrons of the NBA still continue to unite around the same message when it comes to the Nets: The future is irrelevant. And, don’t think Prokhorov and the rest of the front office don’t know this, which is why they’re doing everything in their power to contract the New Jersey Nets.